Hunter of the Dark
by Darkside524
Summary: When DiZ, Riku and Namine are attacked by a Hunter of the Dark, Namine accidentally re-awakens it's human identity. Deciding to ally itself with them, the Hunter goes on a quest to a world filled with giant monsters and powerful ninjas. A world called the Elemental Nations.
1. Chapter 1

Hello.

Ok, to start of with. I'm not an expert on all things Naruto, or Kingdom Hearts so I may get a few things wrong from time to time. Should this happen then please let me know and I will correct any mistakes ASAP. Same goes for spelling an punctuation errors. No matter how many time I re-read these some still slip through.

Now that that's out of the way. This story is set just after Chain of Memories and during the Chunin Exams.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto or Kingdom Hearts. Any songs (or parodies there of) are the property of their respective owners. Any guest characters (which I will not name due to spoilers, and because I haven't thought of them all yet) are the property of their respective owners. No animals were harmed in...no wait, that's not exactly...well...

On with the show.

* * *

People like to think that they know everything about their world. They're wrong. For a starter they all think that their world is the one and only when there are actually countless other worlds out there filled with wonder and magic and, in most cases, danger. One of the few things that all worlds share in common are the Heartless. Creatures born from darkness that lurk in the shadows, gathering strength, preying on the weak and vulnerable. Right now a large pack of Heartless are hunting in a world called Twilight Town. Unfortunately for them the prey they'd chosen are far from helpless.

On the outskirts of town, past the woods, a gang of Neo Shadows advanced on the large iron gates of the Old Mansion. They made it about three steps before they were cut down by a boy in a black cloak with shoulder length silver hair. More Heartless rose up out of the ground, surrounding the young man.

"That the best you can do?" he asked in a bored tone. The Heartless charged at him from all sides but he leapt up into the air, then sliced down at the attacking horde. The moment his sword touched the ground in released a magical shockwave that destroyed the rest of the Heartless.

"Riku." The boy turned and saw DiZ standing in front of the gate. 'When did he get here?' he wondered. "I see that the Heartless are beginning to take note of us." continued DiZ.

"No kidding. These thing just never learn."

"Riku!" Looking past DiZ Riku saw Naminé running out of the Mansion's front door and down to the gate.

Riku was about to say 'Hello' but he was interrupted by DiZ "Naminé! You should be inside helping to restore Sora!" He did not sound pleased.

Naminé stopped just short of the gate "Well...I, heard something and when I looked out of my window I saw Heartless...and the Riku...so I..."

"You wanted to help." said Riku. Naminé smiled at him and nodded.

"A fool notion." said DiZ. Riku glared at him but him didn't seem to notice. "Naminé you have no combat ability whatsoever. All you would have done is put yourself in harms wa-"

There was a loud thud as a massive Heartless dropped to the ground right behind Naminé. It was roughly the size of a bus with a long spiked tail, dark purple spines running the length of its back and chains wrapped round its front legs that ended in three pronged hooks.

'A Hunter of the Dark' thought Riku 'So that's what's leading the Heartless here!'

The Hunter looked from DiZ to Riku before setting it's gaze on Naminé. She tried to run as the Heartless advanced but she tripped on a stone and fell. Riku ran over to help her up just as the Hunter pounced. Riku lifted his sword to deflect the ...nothing.

Riku looked up at the Heartless and saw that it had completely frozen in place. It slowly leaned to the left and fell onto its side.

"DiZ?" Riku looked at the man questioningly.

"That wasn't me." he replied.

Both of them looked at Naminé. "Well...I could see the memories inside its heart so I...brought them to the surface."

The Hunters body suddenly began to fade, becoming a black silhouette. As the trio watched the silhouette began to change shape, shrinking and twisting until it resembled a human. Once the silhouette stopped changing it solidified. The transformation was over in seconds and the Hunter now looked like a male teenager, about the same age as Riku, with black spiky hair, pale skin and dressed entirely in black apart from the red Heartless symbol on his shirt.

"Very interesting." muttered DiZ.

The now human looking Heartless groaned and began to wake up. "Where...how...arrr?"

"It can talk?" said Riku, disbelievingly.

The Heartless looked up at them and jumped to its feet. "Who are you!? Where am I!?"

A black aura began to appear around its arms. Riku thought that it was about to attack until the Heartless started panicking. "WHAT IS THIS STUFF!? GET IT OFFF!"

"Compose yourself!" commanded DiZ "It will fade if you calm down."

The Hunter didn't seem too reassured but it stopped yelling and started breathing deeply. The dark aura faded.

"What...was that?" asked the Heartless.

"You really don't know do you?" said DiZ. "What is your name?"

"My name's...is...I'm..." the Heartless looked confused, then frightened as it realised it couldn't remember it's name.

"I see. Naminé restored your sense of self but not your memories."

"What do you mean 'restored'. What happened to me!? What's going on!? And for the last time WHO ARE YOU ALL!?"

"Well, let's see. I'm Riku, this is Naminé and DiZ. You are a type of Heartless. A Hunter in the Dark to be exact. When you became a Heartless you lost your identity until Naminé restored it."

The Hunter gave Riku a confused look before yelling "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! I'm clearly not a 'Hunter of the Dark'. I'm human!"

"No. You _look _human. Underneath you are still a Heartless."

"I AM NOT A-" the Hunter flung out its arms, accidentally firing two dark bolts. One smashed into the mansion's wall, blasting a hole in the brickwork, the other went through the open front gate and collided with a tree. Riku decided to draw his sword incase the Hunter attacked them again. The sight of the blade materialising in his hand made the Hunter jump with fright. Still unwilling to believe that he was a Heartless the Hunter put too much energy into the jump and ended up on top of one of the broken stone pillars that lined the way to the mansion's front door. He didn't stay up there for long, he lost his balance and fell off, crashing head first into the floor.

"Shouldn't I be in a lot of pain right now?" asked the Hunter as he got up.

"Heartless cannot be injured so easily." said DiZ.

"OK, maybe there's something to what you're saying." There was a loud creaking sound, followed by a crash as the tree that had been struck by the dark bolt fell over.

About half an hour later the group had relocated themselves to DiZ's laboratory/base hidden inside the Mansion. Between them Riku and DiZ explained to the Hunter about the Heartless, the Worlds and the Nobodies.

"I'm still having trouble ...dealing with all this." said the Hunter once they'd finished explaining.

"You get used to it eventually." said Riku.

The Hunter looked over at Naminé, who was standing in a corner, drawing in her sketchbook. "Hey, Naminé?" She looked up from her drawing at the Hunter "Don't suppose that you can 'restore' all my memories for me? Please?"

"Well...yes. But it would take time."

"Time we don't have." said DiZ, who was sitting in front of a bank of computer screens. "Sora must be your primary focus Naminé."

"Thanks for that DiZ. I feel so valued." The Hunter started walking towards the door but he was stopped by Riku.

"Hey, I know that you have no reason to stay but...we could really use some help here."

"You want my help...um...thanks for the vote of confidence but I have a world to get back to."

"And how will you find your world?" Asked DiZ, standing up from his chair and walking over to the Hunter "There are an infinite number of worlds out there, the odds of you finding yours are slim. That's assuming your world is still there."

"Well, what else am I going to do!? Besides I'm not entirely convinced that you two are the good guys. You've both got this...inky, black stuff inside you."

Both Riku and DiZ looked stunned "You can...see our Hearts?" asked Riku.

The Hunter looked sheepish "Er...yeah. I guess that's another 'Heartless' thing. I can see light there too though so I can tell you're not all bad."

"What about me?" asked Naminé.

"You...well. I...can't see...anything in you."

The sad look on the girls face instantly made the Hunter regret telling her that.

"Naminé is a Nobody, she has no Heart." said DiZ dismissively. Riku shot him another angery look but once again he was ignored. "This is what I propose." DiZ continued "If you help us against the Nobodies and Organisation Thirteen then I will assist you in finding your world. Deal?"

The Hunter thought about it for a moment. Everything this DiZ guy said was true, he had no idea how to find his world. And without his memory he had no idea what his life there was like. Hunter decided that he would stick around for a while and help. After all, this seemed like it would be quite an adventure.

"Ok. Deal"

"Excellent."

"You're going to need a new name." said Riku "If we're all going to work together we can't just keep calling you the Hunter of the Dark."

"How about just Hunter?" suggested Naminé.

"Hunter...I like it. Just a warning though, I don't cook, clean or fetch things like coffee and-"

"I can assure you that you will not be given any menial tasks." DiZ went back to his computer screens "There are a large group of Nobodies gathering on a world close by. It's called the Elemental Nations. Go there and find out what they are planning and put a stop to it."

"Aye aye captain." Hunter ran towards the exit but stopped after a few steps. "Umm...how do I get to other worlds?"

"You use a corridor of darkness." answered Riku "Just focus on where you want to go."

Hunter nodded slowly. "Ok, focus...Elemental nations...focus." A black portal appeared around Hunter and he disappeared.

Then he reappeared to the left of where he had just been. Only this time he was upside down. "Ouch!" he cried as he crashed into the floor.

Riku shook his head "Maybe I should help with this" he held up his hand. Hunter heard a strange noise behind him. Turning round he saw a human sized black hole had appeared in the wall.

"Nice. So all I have to do is step through that and poof, I'm there?"

"Exactly. Before you go take this." DiZ handed him a small black mobile phone. It had no brand name, and only one button. "This phone is one of a pair" explained DiZ, holding up the other phone "it will allow you to communicate with me here without having to travel back and forth constantly between worlds."

"Got it. Catch you guys later!" Hunter leapt through the portal, which instantly closed behind him.

"Do you think he'll be ok?" asked Naminé.

"He's a Hunter of the Dark. He'll be fine." said Riku.

'Fine' is probably not the way to describe the Hunter's current situation though. When he walked out of the portal his first thought was 'What are these white fluffy things?'. It took him a moment to realize that they were clouds. Looking down he could see what looked like a medium size town, Riku had gotten the location right but not the altitude.

"Oh thanks a lot Rikuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

The fall lasted for about ten minutes. Hunter eventually crashed through the roof of a building and all its floors until he finally ended up in the basement, lying atop a pile of debris.

"Mmmmm. Ok, not off to a good start here." He got up, dusted himself off and looked up at the hole he'd made in the building. "Hope no one asks me to pay for that. Now where's the exit." Off to the left of where Hunter was standing there was a staircase that lead to a door. Once he was out of the basement Hunter left the building, which looked to be a hotel of some kind. Several people ran past him, obviously going to investigate the commotion but none of them payed any attention to Hunter.

Now outside on the strangely empty street Hunter ran into a new problem, he couldn't read any of the signs on the buildings. "Oh, great. That's just...hmm." Hunter looked more closely at the sign on a store in front of him. At first the letters looked like random squiggles but the longer he stared at them the more they made sense. "Ichiraku's...Ramen...How am I...Is this a Heartless power?"

He didn't have much time to muse on his new ability. Several dangerous looking people, all armed with swords and wearing various animal masks suddenly appeared out of nowhere, surrounding him.

"Hold It right there!" commanded one who was wearing a tiger mask.

"Who are you, and how did you get into the village?" asked another who was wearing a cat mask.

"Ok, well...first up I'm not one hundred percent on 'who' I actually am. And I came from...erm..." he pointed up to roughly the same patch of sky where he'd appeared.

"Funny." said Tiger Mask. "Let's see how funny you are after the Torture and Interrogation Division are through with you."

Hunter couldn't help but smile at that 'Oh, I am going to have soooo much fun with these guys. Hehehehe.'


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two.

After being 'captured' by the masked ninja, Hunter was dragged off to a base hidden in the large mountain that overlooked the village. Once there he'd been chucked into a small bare cell with only a small table and two chairs. With nothing else to do Hunter sat down in the chair furthest from the door and waited. He could probably have tried to escape but he thought that if he played his cards right he might just get some information out of these people.

Twenty minutes later the cell door opened and a man walked in. He took the seat facing Hunter. He was dressed the same as the people who'd captured him, except he wore no animal mask.

"Ok, then." he said in a flat, even voice. "Let's start from the beginning. Who are you?"

Hunter gave him a broad smile and said "Hi, I'm Hunter. That's not my real name but it's all I've got right now."

The man's right eyebrow twitched slightly but other than that he showed no reaction. "What village are you from?"

"I don't know where I'm from. Sad but true."

"What is your purpose in the Hidden Leaf village?"

"Ah. So that's what this place is called. 'Hidden Leaf'. Weird name but it does have a ring to it." he noticed that the man was starting to grind his teeth. 'He's cracking.' thought Hunter

"Listen here kid!" he boomed "You obviously don't know just how much trouble you're-"

"Ouch! Indoor voice, man! Indoor voice. I'm not deaf over here."

The man was now very agitated and going red in the face.

Hunter smiled even wider 'He's cracked.'

"You are going to tell me what I want to know or-"

Before he could finish Hunter reached forward and placed a finger over his lips. "Shhh. Don't speak." he said in a exaggerated romantic tone "Your eyes say it all for me."

The interrogator finally lost it. He leapt up from his seat, reached down into one of his trousers many pockets and brought out a kunai. At the same time two more people burst into the room, Tiger Mask and another who wore a boar mask. The two quickly restrained their friend who rapidly calmed down.

"What do you think you're doing?!" demanded Tiger Mask, letting go of the interrogator. "You let this kid manipulate you with school yard level insults. Your dismissed Duzo."

Duzo looked ashamed and meekly nodded. He flashed Hunter a last angry look before leaving the room.

"Well, it's been real man, but I've got to go. I still have a job to do, unlike your friend."

Hunter got up and went for the door only for Boar and Tiger to bar his way. "You're not leaving until we get a straight answer out of you." said Boar in a gruff voice.

"Either get out of my way or I warn you , you'll suffer far worse than you can possible imagine." warned Hunter.

Both Tiger and Boar prepared to draw their swords. "Just try it." said Tiger.

Hunter gave them both the best evil smile he could muster.

_Half an hour later, still inside T&I's base._

Anko Mitarashi wasn't a happy woman. As one of the Hidden Leafs top level special jōnin she liked it when her day went according to plan. Right now she should be monitoring the teams participating in the chunin exams, instead she was matching into the T&I headquarters to interrogate some unlucky sap who was apparently too much for anyone else to handle.

Finally she reached the cell where her latest victim was held. An ANBU wearing a Tiger mask was waiting outside for her.

"He's in there I take it?" Anko asked.

Tiger nodded. "Yes M'am. He calls himself 'Hunter' but even he admits that's not his real name. So far he's avoided every question we asked. Or just given a non-sensical answer."

Anko sighed heavily "Still, did you have to send for ME specifically. There have to be other interrogators that can handle this?"

"Well...I think t would be best if you just listened to this."

Tiger opened the cell door just a little.

"AND A HEY HO, HE'S PLOUGHING A TROLL! THE GODS ONLY KNOW HOW THE KEY FITS THE-"

Tiger shut the door again, cutting off the rest of the 'song'. "He's been singing like that for the past half hour. He just won't shut up!"

Anko sighed again. This was going to be one of those days.

What the two ninja didn't know was that their 'prisoner' could hear every word of their conversation. Apparently enhanced hearing was yet another Heartless ability and while it had been difficult to control (he'd nearly been deafened by the sound of scuttling insects) Hunter could now hear people talking all over the building.

That was only the tip of the iceberg though. Hunter could also see everything that was going on in the building. People walking around going from point a to point b, interrogations being carried out and all the secret meetings that no one was supposed to know about. And inside every person he could see a Heart, filled with a mix of light and dark. A human mind would have overloaded and shut down with all this information but Heartless minds don't work in the same way.

The cell door opened and Anko walked in. She didn't say anything, she just slowly walked up to the table Hunter was sitting at then she slammed her fists down on the table in an effort to scare him. It didn't work he just sat there with the same contented smile on his face.

He hadn't even said anything to her yet and Anko already disliked him. "Think you're pretty smart don't you?" asked Anko rhetorically. "You probably think it's funny to play your little games?"

"Yes to all the above." answered Hunter. "Now why have you styled your hair after a pineapple?" he added.

Anko smirked at him. "Cute. Well guess what, you're-"

"Why are they afraid of you?" asked Hunter.

Anko was so surprised by the question she almost lost her train of thought. "What?"

"All the people you passed on your way here, they were afraid of you. Some even hated you."

Anko hadn't been expecting this 'How could he possibly know THAT!?' she wondered. Hunter's gaze wandered to her neck, the exact spot where her curse mark was. Anko instinctively placed her hand over the mark in an effort to cover it, despite the fact that her trench coat normally hid it from view.

"Does it have something to do with that mark on your-"

Anko quickly produced a kunai and slammed it point first into the table close to Hunter's hand.

"Touchy subject?" he asked.

"Just who are you?" Anko demanded, deciding to go for a more direct method of interrogation. "You're obviously a ninja from another village, what is your mission here? Espionage? Assassination? Out with it or-"

"Anko, I can say in all honestly. I am not a ninja. I do however have an important mission and I've wasted enough time here. So if you'll excuse me." Hunter stood up and took a few steps back from Anko.

"You're not leaving this room until you tell me everything." she spat out venomously.

Hunter gave her an 'oh really' smirk before closing his eyes and focusing. A black portal appeared right behind Hunter. He opened his eyes just in time to see the shocked look on Anko's face before saying "Catch you later!" then he jumped backwards through the portal. Anko tried to follow him through but the portal closed before she could reach it and she ended up slamming into the wall.

'Oh just great!' she thought ' A prisoner escape on my watch. I'm never going to live this down'.

"Tiger!" she yelled. The ANBU rushed into the room. "The prisoner has escaped! Round up every ninja you can and find him! He used some kind of teleportation jutsu to escape so that means he's at least jōnin rank, got that!?"

Tiger nodded then ran off to assemble his team. Anko wasn't far behind him, she was determined to find that little jerk first and drag him back here, dead or alive.

_On the other side of the village_.

Hunters latest attempt at using the corridors of darkness was more successful that the previous ones. He actually appeared where he wanted to this time, on the roof of the ' Ichiraku's Ramen' building. The only problem was that the portal was horizontal instead of vertical so Hunter ended up crashing face first into the roof.

"Oooff! Well...getting better." me muttered into the concrete. He picked himself up and walked over the ledge to get a better view of the street below. The place was utterly deserted. Hunter briefly wondered why until he saw a sign that (once translated) read 'Welcome all to the Chunin Exams!'

"Some kind of festival?" he wondered aloud. "That would be as good a place to start as any...hang on!"

Hunter noticed movement down on the street below. Two people, both women dressed in plain kimonos. There was nothing particularly interesting about them, except that neither of them had a heart.

"Nobodies." said Hunter quietly. He took a few steps back from the ledge. 'Let's see where they're going'.

Hunter kept to the rooftops as he followed the two 'women'. A couple of real people would pass by them every now and then but none of them noticed anything amiss, and why would they? What was strange about two women walking through town having a friendly chat? If anyone was interested enough to listen, they would have discovered that the two were repeating the same conversation over and over on a loop.

'Hiding in plain sight. Clever girls' Hunter thought. That was when he bumped into someone. He'd been so focused on the Nobodies he hadn't noticed that Anko had found him again.

"Oh, come on! Not now, I'm busy."

"Doing what?" asked Anko, threateningly drawing a kunai.

"Following those two-" Hunter pointed down at the street only to find that the two Nobodies had disappeared. "Snap!"

"Hey Anko." Both Anko and Hunter looked round in surprise and saw a man with spiky silver hair standing on a chimney overlooking the two of them. The man was wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face and he wore a headband that was angled to cover up his left eye. He was also reading a book that was titled 'Icha Icah Paradise'.

"Kakashi." said Anko. "What are you doing here!?"

"I just wanted to see it for myself." Kakashi leapt down from his perch and landed between Anko and Hunter. "So this is the one who got away from you Anko. You must be slipping." he said jokingly.

"How did you find out already!?" asked Anko, barely controlling her anger.

"It's a small village, word travels fast."

Hunter decided to interrupt "Hi Kakashi, I'm Hunter. Nice to meet you, goodby- wait." Hunter raised both his hands and started looking left and right. "I sense...something..." he suddenly ducked down just in time to avoid a flying kick from another ninja.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" the ninja yelled. He landed right next to Kakashi. "I missed! That doesn't normally happen!"

Hunter got back up again "Who are you?"

The new ninja gave him a wide smile, showing off all his teeth. "Might Guy. The Hidden Leafs Handsome Devil!"

Hunter blinked a few times before saying "OK. Er, I'm Hunter." He looked at the three ninja's heads "I can't imagine your hair product bills. Kakashi, how much gel does it take for your hair to stand up like that?"

"Ha! This Kids got spirit." said Guy.

"He'll have a lot less when I'm done with him." growled Anko.

"Whoa, she's bit fierce isn't she?" said Hunter.

Both Guy and Kakashi winced at that, they both knew what would happen next.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!" roared Anko. as she jumped at Hunter, trying to slashing him with her Kunai, but he managed to avoid her by side stepping.

"Ahh, cripes! Take it easy. AH!" Hunter ducked to avoid another slash. "Will you all please just STOP!"

Much to Hunters surprise that's just what everyone did. Anko paused mid swing while Guy and Kakashi stood where they were, not moving in the slightest.

"What the...?" then Hunter noticed the strange rings that had appeared around the ninja's waists. The rings were a translucent purple in colour and were surrounded by roman numerals from one to twelve. Hunter felt strange as well. Like he'd been drained somehow.

Hunter walked up to Anko. She seemed totally frozen. He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes a few times. Nothing. He tried the same thing with Guy and Kakashi with the same result, not so much as a twitch.

"I...froze them...in TIME!" he yelled. "How...what...ahh!...How do I un-freeze them!? Is this permanent? Oh, please don't let it be permanent!"

That was when the spell wore off and time resumed for the three ninjas. For them it was as though Hunter had just disappeared and reappeared.

'Huh? This kids fast!' thought Kakashi.

"Ha! The fires of youth burn strongly in this one!" said Guy.

Hunter gave him a confused look. "The fires of-whoa!" He ducked to avoid a kunai that Anko threw at him.

"Ok, let's try this again."

Anko saw Hunter's eyes suddenly turn glowing yellow. 'Is that...a kekkei genkai?!'

Hunter raised both his arms and yelled "STOP!" Once again everyone froze in place. "Hehehehe. I am going to have soooo much fun with this-whoa..." Hunter suddenly felt the draining feeling again. Only it was much stronger this time. "Ok, so this has a down side. I'd better use this sparingly."

Hunter quickly had a rummage through the three ninjas pockets. Apart from various weapons he didn't find anything interesting, except a pen which he used to apply some 'artwork' to their faces. He also took Kakashi's book, tore out the first page and lodged it between two of the man's hair spikes.

"Well, my work here is done." said Hunter as he proudly admired his handiwork. "That spell should wear off any second now. Time to book out." Hunter jumped off the roof and landed on the street below before running off to the left.

The stop spell on the three ninja wore off seconds later.

"Where did he go this...what the!?" The first thing that Anko noticed was that once again Hunter had vanished, the second thing was that Guy now had a large walrus moustache drawn on his face. He was also giving her a strange look.

"He's drawn something on me to hasn't he?" she asked. Guy nodded. Anko had been given a small moustache and a little goatee beard.

"AAAARRRGGHHH!" Anko and Guy looked over at Kakashi. "My book!" he yelled. "He's taken my book!"

"Ermm, Kakashi." Kakashi looked over at Guy who pointed at his head. Reaching up Kakashi found the piece of paper that Hunter had placed in his hair.

"He...he ripped out the first page! He defiled MY BOOK!"

"How did he do all this?" wondered Anko aloud "There's no way he could have moved that fast."

"Maybe he used some kind of paralysis jutsu?" suggested Guy.

"A jutsu powerful enough to work on all three of us. I was right, this kid is defiantly jōnin rank, at the very least. And then there's those eyes..."

"I don't care how powerful his jutsu are. He has my book!" yelled Kakashi, who was still hysterical. "And I'm going to turn this whole village upside down until I find him!"

_Back with Hunter. Elsewhere in the village._

Once he'd gotten away from the ninjas Hunter had tried to find the Nobodies again but they were nowhere to be found. After his search had failed he'd decided to go to plan B : gather information. He was currently hiding in an alleyway across from a grand, important looking building called 'Hokage Tower' which he hoped might have some useful information stored inside. The problem was that the place was heavily guarded. Two men stationed at the doors and a whole lot of ninjas hiding all over, the only reason that Hunter knew they were there was because of his Heartless vision.

'Now is probably a good time to ask for help' he thought. Reaching into his trouser pocket he brought out the small phone that DiZ had given to him. He pressed it's one and only button and raised it to his ear.

Moments later DiZ's voice crackled out from the speakers "Hunter."

"Hey DiZ. Listen...I'm in a bit of a jam here. There's this building that I need to break into but it's swarming with guards so I was wondering if...maybe...Riku could swing by and clear them out?"

"Riku has more important things to do right now. You are perfectly capable of dealing with this on your own."

"You're joking right!? I can't take these guys, I don't know how to fight!" Hunter yelled into the phone.

"Heartless are made to fight, just let your instincts guide you. If you want to take a more stealthy approach then you can alter your appearance as well."

"How?"

Hunter heard DiZ sigh on the other end of the line "Just focus on what you want to look like then use the Power of Darkness."

"Ok, now how do I use the Power of...DiZ?...DiZ? Hello!? He hung up on me!" Hunter put the phone away and started to focus on changing his shape. He conjured up a mental image of the tiger masked ninja from earlier then tried to imagine himself as that ninja. Anyone watching him right now would have seen his form fade to a black silhouette, then change and re-from into an ANBU ninja wearing a tiger mask.

Hunter opened his eyes and found, much to his surprise, that he'd successfully transformed. "Awesome!" he said to no one in particular. With his new disguise Hunter found getting into the tower very easy, the two guards at the door let him in with no questions and once inside no one challenged him.

One ninja noticed him and said "Tiger! How's the search coming?"

Hunter said nothing because that would have given him away instantly, instead he just kept walking. His super hearing picked up someone behind him saying "What's up with him? Not so much as a 'hello'."

"ANBU. Think their better than everybody else."

'Awkward' thought Hunter as he headed for a flight of stairs.

Hunter explored the new building floor by floor looking for anything that might help on his mission. Finally he found a room on the top floor marks as 'Hokage's Office'. Seeing as how the building was called 'Hokage Tower' Hunter guessed that this room belonged to whoever was in charge, so there must be something he could use in there.

He carefully opened the door and peeked inside. Seeing no one he entered the room and close the door behind him, dropping his disguise and returning to his normal appearance. It was a large office with a single window in the back wall, a long desk with a tone of paperwork piled up on one side and a crystal ball on the other.

There was a strange shimmering light coming from the ball, which probably meant it was somehow magical. Hunter ignored the desk and went for a row of filing cabinets on the left wall.

"Ok, let's see...Nobodies...N...N...Here we go, M to P...Nothing on Nobodies. Drat." Hunter closed that cabinet and thought back to what he'd seen in the village.

"Chunin Exams...C...C...A to C!...Aha!" There was a whole bunch of files in a section marked 'Chunin'. Hunter started pulling them out one by one.

"Let's see...List of Chunin. No. Chunin Missions. No. Sorry can you hold these, thanks." Hunter passed the two files to the old man who was standing next to him. "Chunin Exams, sco- um..."

Hunter slowly turned round. Standing just to his left, holding the two files he'd just handed him was an old man, definitely in his seventies. He wore red and white robes and a large diamond shaped hat, despite his age Hunter could sense that he was a powerful opponent. He wasn't alone either, two of the masked ninjas were with him, one wore an eagle mask, the other a cat mask.

"Hi, um...I guess you're this 'Hokage' person right?"

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, nodded slightly "You would be correct. I assume that you are 'Hunter'. I've heard much about you."

"I deny everything."

At that moment there was a poof of smoke on the other side of the room and Anko appeared. "Lord Hokage, there's been no sign of- YOU!"

Hunter looked from Anko to the Hokage, then back again. "Hi honey. What's for dinner?"

"You...YOU. Lord Hokage, this man is a dangerous criminal. He has powerful jutsu and an unknown kekkei genkai!"

"Kec-what? Are you making these words up?" asked Hunter.

Sarutobi looked at the moustache and beard drawn on Anko's face. "I take it that the moustache is your doing?"

Hunter shrugged "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Now-OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT!" Hunter pointed over at the other side of the room.

No one turned round.

"Ah, I was rather hoping you'd fall for that. Oh well" Hunter jumped over the Hokage and his guards and bolted out the door. Anko was right behind him, followed by the two ANBU ninja and the Hokage. Hunter ran up a flight of stairs, looking up he could see through the ceiling that Kakashi and Guy waiting just beyond the roof access door. Quickly he shape shifted so that he now looked just like Anko.

The transformation finished just a second before he burst out the door and onto the roof. Kakashi and Guy looked round and saw their comrade running at full speed towards them.

"Anko, what's..?" began Guy.

"Can't stop! Excuse me!" yelled Hunter.

Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly "That voice! IT'S YOU!"

Hunter changed back into his normal form still running straight for the roofs ledge. The group of ninjas were only a few steps behind him as the jumped down off the roof. As his pursuers reached the ledge they were in for a surprise. Hunter was crouching on the side of the building, facing them with his palms outstretched

"STOP!"

From the ninjas perspective it was as though Hunter just vanished but Anko, Guy and Kakashi knew the truth. He paralysed them all AGAIN.

"Up here lads and ladies!" they all looked up and saw Hunter was now on the roof of the building opposite, twirling a pen in his left hand. "Hope you all like your new looks. Definite improvement!"

Anko looked at the other ninjas. Both the ANBU guards now had moustaches drawn over their masks while Sarutobi had a pair of drawn on spectacles.

"Oh, and Kakashi, catch!"

Hunter threw a paper aeroplane at Kakashi. The sliver haired ninja caught it and opened it up. "ARRHGG! This is the SECOND page of my book! You ripped out another page!"

"Hahahahah! I know what your all thinking! 'Does he have it all planned out? Or is he just making it up as he goes along! Ha!"

Anko clenched her fists, trying to keep her temper in check. "Just who are you!" she yelled.

"My friends call me Murphy. You call me Robocop!" He smiled at their confused looks. Hunter lifted up the file he'd stolen and waved it at them. "Thanks for the gift by the way. This 'Forest of Death' place sounds like fun!"

Anko's expression changed from anger to afraid 'The Forest of Death? He's going after the genin teams!'

Hunter tossed the file away "Hahaha. Oh life is going to be a wow wow weeeee!" A dark portal started appearing around him. "For my shadow AND MEEEEEEEEE!" Before anyone could get to him he was gone.

_Elsewhere in the Village. Danzō Shimura's private office._

Danzō let out a long sigh as he signed off yet more paper work. As an elder of the village and a candidate to be the next Hokage he had to wade through a seemingly never ending sea of red tape and burocracy. The thing that kept him going through all this boredom was his determination (some would say obsession) to protect the Hidden Leaf Village, even if that meant sifting through all this paperwork and doing other, less pleasant things.

"Hey there." Danzō looked up and saw a man standing in front of his desk . He had dark, grey streaked hair, a scared face and a patch over one eye. He wore strange black cloak. "My you are a busy little bee Danzō." he continued.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my office?" he demanded in an authoritative voice.

"Name's Xgibar. I'm here to...retrieve something. Something that your little secret organisation found in a crater, and brought back to you. Ringing any bells"

Danzō's uncovered eye widened. This man knew about the 'artefact' and about his ROOT organisation.

Xigbar saw his reaction and smiled "Oh yeah. We know all about you. We've been watching for some time." he looked at the bandages that covered most of his body. "You always claim that everything you do is for your village. Are you sure that it's not just to surpass that old coot Sarutobi?"

"Guards!" commanded Danzō. He was shocked when no ANBU ninjas appeared.

Xigbar laughed. "Oh we've already 'dealt' with your guards. They put up quite a poor fight actually. Didn't they, Thorn?"

It took Danzō a second to realise that he was addressing someone else. Before he could move he felt an immense pain in his chest. Looking down he could see two jagged lines, one black, one white, protruding from his chest. Danzō couldn't move his head but he knew that his attacker must be behind him.

Xigbar moved round the desk so that he was now standing next to Danzō. He carefully opened up the top right had draw of the desk and took out the artefact that ROOT had discovered, a small white box covered in black lines that occasionally glowed with a strange light.

"There's a homing beacon inside this." said Xigbar "That's how we found it, and this world. I supose I should thank you for bringing us here. There is a lot of potential for the Organisation. That boy, what's his name...Naruto. Now he is very interesting. You know, he kinda reminds me of someone I used to know."

Danzō snarled at him but apart from that he couldn't do anything. Xigbar just laughed "Sorry got a little carried away there. Thorn. Finish him."

The last thing Danzō heard was a flat, emotionless voice say "Thundaga."

"Nice work." complimented Xigbar as Thorn pushed Danzō's charred remains aside. He looked down at the cube he now held in his hands. Pressing a hidden button a small hologram appeared out of the box. It showed designs for a new ship, a massive, square ship.

"The designs for the Dreadnaught." said Xigbar, almost absent mindedly. "Thought we'd lost these to that Heartless attack. Instead it ends up leading us here. Funny."

He turned his attention back to Thorn. "You know what you have to do here."

Thorn nodded "For... Organisation... Thirteen."

Xigbar rolled his eye "Yeah, sure. Whatever." then he disappeared into a black portal.

Thorn was the only one left in the room now. He slowly raised his hand. A small spark appeared in his palm which he allowed to drop to the ground. The spark quickly set light to the dry wood floor. The flames spread and in moments the entire room was enveloped.

Thorn just stood in the inferno. He looked over at a mirror on the wall. He saw himself in his human disguise. He had pale skin, jet black spiky hair black cloths with the white symbol of the Nobodies emblazoned on his shirt.

The mirror shattered from the heat, shards of glass flying all over the room. Thorn summoned his own black portal and disappeared, leaving the building to burn.

* * *

Well, Thorn is just a lovely person isn't he. In case you haven't already guess he's going to be the main villain of this story, and he won't have any qualms about killing people off.

That's all for now.

Please rate and review. Thank you


	3. Chapter 3

And here's the next chapter in which Hunter makes some new friends and a lot of new enemies.

Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 3

Somewhere inside the forty fourth training ground, also known as the Forest of Death, a black portal appeared on the branch of a massive tree. After a moment's pause Hunter stepped out.

"Yes!" he yelled "I've finally got this teleporting thing down...wait...why is the ground up there?" Hunter looked down and saw the forest canopy and, through the leaves, patches of blue sky. He was upside down.

"Ah, snap." Hunter walked round the branch so he was now the right way up. Looking from left to right the only thing he could see was trees, trees and more trees. "Great, now where do I go? I knew I should have kept that file."

With no obvious way to go Hunter decided to just run off in one direction and hope he was going the right way. With his Heartless strength and agility jumping from branch to branch was easy. Soon enough Hunter came across a group of three people by a river. Considering that everyone he'd met so far had been less than friendly Hunter stayed up in the tree tops to observe them from a distance.

There was a boy who looked like a miniature version of Might Guy, right down to the large eye brows exercising away from the other two. The only girl in the trio was down by the river filling up a flask of water. She had brown hair that she wore in two buns on either side of her head. She was wearing a pink sleeveless blouse and dark green pants.

The other boy in the team had long brown hair that came all the way down to the middle of his back. He was wearing a khaki shirt with dark brown shorts and he had strange eyes that were plain white, almost pupil-less. Hunter could see dark shadows in this guys heart. He wasn't evil but he wasn't the friendly type.

'None of them have seen me yet' thought Hunter 'As long as I stay up here then-' one of the branches he was holding on to creaked. 'Oh. Snap!'

The branch broke and Hunter fell out of the tree and crashed into the ground. Looking up from the ground he saw the three young ninjas were all now looking at him and they were all in combat stances.

"Err. Hi." said Hunter as he picked himself up. "Well, this is awkward."

"Hand over your scroll!" demanded the one with the white eyes.

"My what?"

"You heard him." said the girl "Hand over your scroll, and we won't have to beat the snot out of you."

"I don't have a scroll."

"I think he's telling the truth Neji." said the miniature Might Guy.

"If he's here for the Chunin exams then he will have a scroll Lee." replied Neji.

"Wow, he's a barrel of laughs isn't he. How do you two put up with him?" asked Hunter.

Without warning Neji charged at him. Hunter jumped out of the way, barely avoiding an open palmed strike.

Hunter saw the girl draw a kunai and Lee preparing to attack as well.

"Tenten, Lee, stay back! ordered Neji. "This guy might not be alone, be ready if more show up!"

Neji aimed five more strikes at Hunter but he managed to dodge every one. 'This guy's fast' thought Neji 'I may have to use the byakugan'.

Hunter dodged another blow 'This is bad' he thought 'I can't take all...three...' Hunter moved aside, avoiding yet another strike. Then he grabbed hold of Neji's arm. "Blizzard." The air around Neji and Hunter suddenly became very cold. Neji looked down at his arm and saw ice begin to spread from where Hunter was touching him. He tried to pull his arm away but he couldn't shake Hunter's grip.

Suddenly Hunter let go. Neji clutched at his frozen arm, unable to move it.

Hunter seemed more surprised than Neji, 'Did I just do that?' he thought. It was like he'd know exactly what to do. Sensing movement behind him Hunter raised his left arm and blocked a side swipe from Lee. Lee then aimed a kick at Hunters exposed side but Hunter blocked it with his leg. He spun round and punched Lee in the gut, sending him flying backwards.

Hunter couldn't believe what he was doing. It was like everything was moving in slow motion. He could sense what his opponents were doing. 'I can fight?'. He jumped up into the air to avoid a sweeping kick from Neji then he did a spinning kick mid air to knock aside a kunai Tenten threw at him.

"I can fight!" he proclaimed.

Lee got back up and ran straight for Hunter. Once he was close enough he did a round house kick but Hunter dropped down under it. He then landed his own kick on Lee's back, launching him in Neji's direction. Tenten threw two more kunai at Hunter but he batted them both aside.

While his back was turned Neji launched another attack but Hunter easily dodged it and delivered a side chop to Neji's frozen arm, shattering the ice and breaking the bone. Neji grunted in pain. Before he had time to recover Hunter performed a sweeping kick that took Neji's legs out from under him, then he punched down, slamming Neji into the ground.

"Neji!" yelled Tenten. 'I guess I have no choice.' She reached round behind her a brought out her two weapon scrolls 'I didn't think I'd have to use this move until the finals.' Placing the two scrolls on the ground, one on either side of her, Tenten rapidly made several hand signs.

"Rising twin Dragons!" The two scrolls went spinning into the air, unravelling as they went. Tenten jumped up between the two scrolls and began releasing and throwing the various weapons that had been sealed in the paper.

Hunter's looked at the incoming barrage and somehow knew exactly what to do. "Aero!" he was suddenly surrounded by a barrier of wind that deflected every last weapon thrown.

"I'm not done yet!" yelled Tenten. She pulled on the hidden wires that connected her finger tips to the discarded weapons and directed them back at Hunter.

"Oh no you don't!" Hunter flung out his arms causing the aero spell to expand in a massive gust of wind. Once again the weapons were flung aside and Tenten was blown backwards into a tree.

Hunter looked round at the three genin. Tenten was winded, out of energy and had run out of weapons. Lee was picking himself back up but he was in no shape to carry on fighting. Neji was trying to get back up but he was in worse shape than Lee.

With a great deal of joy, Hunter realised that he'd won. "WAHOO! YES, yes! Oh, everybody was kung fu fighting...those kids were fast as lightning...yeah!"

"No..." Hunter looked over at Neji, who was slowly, painfully standing back up. "I...will not ...be beaten...by a loser like you!"

"Hate to beak it to ya man but you've lost. I just took down you and your team and I'm not even warmed up yet."

"Leaf Hurricane!" Hunter raised his arm just in time to block a kick from Lee. Apparently he still had some fight left in him after all.

Lee jumped back before Hunter could counter attack. "Neji, Tenten! If we all attack at the same time then we might still have a chance!"

"You three want it? Come and get it!" taunted Hunter.

Tenten got back up and ran towards Hunter, picking up a discarded kunai as she went. Neji started running to, pulling back his remaining arm to deliver an open palmed strike while Lee went around Hunter to attack from the rear.

"That's your last mistake! Blizzard!" Hunter spun round on the spot sending three blasts of ice at the genin. Hunter had waited until the last second so they would have no time to dodge. Each bolt of ice struck home and Tenten, Lee and Neji were all frozen in place.

"C-c-c-can't...move." stammered Lee.

"Well this has been fun guys but I've got to get going. Don't worry about the ice, you'll thaw out eventually." Hunter jumped up onto a tree branch and began leaping through the forest again "Remember!" he yelled back at the genin "Think warm thoughts!"

Hunter still had no idea where he was going. All the trees looked the same to him and for all he knew he was just going in circles. He'd seen several other ninja teams in the woods but he'd decided to avoid them for now.

"Still no sign of any nobodies." he muttered to himself. "Maybe I should head back to the village...wait. What the heck?"

Hunter had come across a large clearing where a girl with pink hair was facing off against three other ninjas, one woman, one guy whose face was mostly covered in bandages and another man with black spiky hair. She was protecting two others, both boys that were unconscious and lying beneath the roots of a huge tree.

Looking down Hunter could see three other people hiding in the bushes watching the fight, a blond haired girl, and two boys, one fat and one with black hair in style that looked like a pineapple. Hunter silently dropped down from the trees and snuck up behind them.

"Sasuke and Naruto are out of it." said the ninja with the pineapple hairstyle. "It's just Sakura alone against the three of those guys. Well, what do you want to do, Ino?" he looked over at the blond.

"Why ask me huh?" asked the blond, who apparently was named Ino.

"Well if we don't do something soon she's toast. Are you cool with that?"

"What do you want me to do Shikamaru? Go out there and get myself killed?"

Hunter ignored the two bickering genin and focused on what was happening in the clearing.

Sakura threw several shuriken at the guy with the bandages but his team mate, the one with the spiky hair got in the way and deflected the attack with a blast of air. While Sakura was distracted the woman had snuck up behind her and grabbed her by her hair, forcing Sakura to her knees.

"My, what soft and shiny hair" she said in a mocking voice. "but you know what? If you spent a little less time shampooing and a little more time practicing your jutsu you might not be in this fix." while she was talking she gave Sakura's head a few cruel shakes. "Hey Zaku, I know what would be fun. Let's make miss beauty queen here watch as you finish of that Sasuke guy."

"Why not, sounds like fun to me." replied the man with spiky hair.

'Ok, that tears it!' thought Hunter. 'I'm not just going to sit here on the side lines and let them get away with this! I survived a fall from three miles up, I can take whatever the three stooges out there have!'

"Well if you three aren't going to do anything" the three genin hiding in the bushes almost jumped out of their skin at the sound of Hunters voice "I guess that leaves all the heroics to me!"

Hunter jumped out into the clearing and yelled "Hey, morons!"

The three Sound ninja and Sakura all looked over at Hunter.

"Real tough guys aren't you" he continued "picking on a little girl, all alone in the woods. And as for you lady! Your hardy one to talk about other people's hair. I can smell your coconut cream shampoo all the way from over here!"

The guy with the bandages looked down at Sakura "Friend of yours, little girl?"

"She's not my friend." said Hunter "At least not yet anyway. We've only just met. Hey there."

'Who is this guy?' Sakura thought 'And what is he thinking taking on these three alone?'

"Why stick your neck out for someone you don't even know?" asked Dosu.

"Well what kind of person would I be if I just sat on the sidelines and watched you three beat the crap out of her?" Hunter said the last part a little louder and directed it at the bushes behind him.

"Hey guys, I think we've got a hero here?" said Kin.

Zaku smirked at that "Well then 'hero', eat this! Slicing sound wave!"

Zaku aimed his arms at Hunter and fired a blast of compressed air at the speed of sound. Hunter didn't move and just let the attack hit him. Zaku turned round, not bothering to see if his air attack actually worked.

"Now that he's out of the way-"

"Don't count your chickens!"

Zeku spun round and found himself face to face with Hunter.

'No way!' he thought 'How did he survive that!'

Hunter grabbed hold of Zaku's shoulder "Falcon!" he pulled his arm back "Punch!" then he hit Zaku square in the chest. The man went flying backwards and crashed into a giant tree root.

'This is PERFECT!' thought Hunter 'I barely even felt that attack! Oh, I am on such a power trip right now!'

"You...who are you?" demanded Dosu.

"I'm the Indestructible Captain Scarlet!" proclaimed Hunter, punching the air "And you guys are toast! Blizzard!"

Hunter jammed his arms forward and fired off two ice blasts at Kin and Dosu. They both dodged the attack, although Kin had to let go of Sakura. The two sound ninja regrouped next to Zaku, who was just getting back up.

"Hey, pinky." Sakura looked up at Hunter "Go check on your friends. I'll deal with Huey, Dewey, and Louie here." Sakura nodded. She still wasn't sure what this guy was planning but right now he was protecting her and her friends. That was all that mattered. She got up and ran over to the tree where her team mates were still lying unconscious.

"This guys going to take on all three of them by himself?" asked Ino.

"Hey, better him than me. I mean us!" replied Choji.

Hunter examined his three opponents. 'These guy have some serious darkness inside. They won't hesitate to kill me if they get the chance.' He took a closer look at the one called Zaku. 'He has tubes implanted in his arms. That's how he can fire of that air blast attack. I wonder what happens if those tubes get blocked?'

"Alright, let's try this again." Zaku raised his arms and aimed at Hunter "Slicing sound wave!"

Hunter jumped over the air blast "Missed!"

"Not quite" said Dosu, raising his right arm. Hunter saw a metal device with a bunch of holes in it attached to Dosu's forearm. Then he heard a loud, constant ringing sound.

'A sound attack!' thought Hunter 'If I were human that would really mess with my head. Good thing I'm not human!' Hunter dropped out of the air, aiming a punch at Dosu. The sound Ninja moved out of the way just in time. Hunters punch shattered the ground where he'd just been standing.

'That sound wave should have disoriented him. Why didn't it work?' thought Dosu.

"Nice try mummy man." said Hunter "But if you think that sound attack will work on me you're in de-Nile. Ha!"

"I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS GUY!" yelled Zaku. Once again he aimed his arms at Hunter "Slicing sound wave!" He fired another powerful blast of air at sonic speeds straight at Hunter. He just stood there and let the wave of sound and compressed air wash over him.

Everyone stared at him wide eyed.

"T-that's impossible!" stammered Zaku.

"Ha, told you I was indestructible!" Taunted Hunter. "Brave you may be, you think that your might is tough. Come have a go if you think you're hard enough!" he added in a sing song voice.

"Yeah, you may be 'indestructible'" snarled Zaku "But they're not!" This time he aimed his arms at Sakura and her team mates "Slicing-"

While Zaku was distracting Hunter, Kin had readied some of her senbon needles to attack the kid with. That was when she saw his eyes change to a bright yellow. "What the...Zaku watch out!" she yelled.

Too late. Hunter flung out his right arm and a large three pronged hook attached to a long chain appeared out of nowhere. It flew straight at Zaku and wrapped itself multiple times around his arms.

"What? What is this, I can't break free!?" said Zaku, panic mounting in his voice.

"Hey Zaku!" The sound ninja looked over at Hunter and saw him smirking. "GET OVER HERE!" Hunter pulled on the chain connecting him to Zaku's arms, lifting the ninja off his feet and sending him flying towards Hunter. Once he was close enough Hunter punched down, smashing Zaku into the ground.

That was when Kin threw her needles at Hunter. He swung his left arm and another chain and hook appeared, deflecting the needles away. The hook then fell to the ground with a dull metallic thud.

Hunter looked at the chains that ran from the large hooks and then disappeared up into his sleeves. "Hooks with chains huh. I was hoping for swords or death rays but this'll do." The chain and hook around Zaku's arms unwrapped itself and Hunter pulled it back to him.

'Those chains look heavy' thought Dosu 'There's no way he can move effectively with them dragging him down'

Hunter charged full speed at Dosu, before anyone could blink he was slamming his nee into the man's stomach. The hooks dragged along behind Hunter, ripping out great chunks of dirt but he wasn't slowed down in the slightest.

"Those chains aren't even slowing him down!" said Shikamaru. As he watched he saw Hunter swing one of the chains round aiming for Kin. She dodge the attack but then the chain changed direction and wrapped itself round her leg. He sent his other chain at Dosu, which coiled around the man's waist. Hunter jumped high into the air, dragging Dosu and Kin with him.

"Swing your partners round and round!" Hunter dived back towards the ground still pulling the two sound ninja with him. "And smash their heads into the ground!" Hunter landed gracefully on the ground while Kin and Dosu were brought smashing down. Kin was knocked unconscious, Dosu just broke a few ribs.

"Take my advice mummy man and stay...ut oh." Hunter looked over at where Sakura and her team mates were. One of them had gotten back up but Hunter could see something was deeply wrong. The kid had strange black marks that were spreading across his body and a dark purple energy was swirling around him.

Hunters vision zoomed in on the kids shoulder. 'He's got the same mark as that Anko lady. That thing is real bad juju.'

"Sakura." said the boy. His voice was perfectly calm but there was a threatening undertone. "Sakura, who did this to you?"

Sakura looked terrified. This wasn't the Sasuke she knew. "Sasuke. What happened to you?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"Don't worry. I'm all right. In fact I've never felt better. He gave me this gift, and he made me understand what I am. I'm an avenger. To follow my path I must have power at any price. Even if it means being consumed by evil."

'That doesn't sound good' thought Hunter.

"Sakura, which one of these people did this to you?" Sasuke asked again.

"Ha! That would be me!" Hunter looked to his left and saw Zaku getting back up.

"You really should have kept quiet man." said Hunter.

Zaku aimed his arms at Sasuke "I'll take care of the whole bunch of them in one fell swoop! Super Sonic -"

Zaku never got the chance to finish. In the blink of an eye Sasuke was behind him. He Grabbed hold of Zaku's arms and force him down into a kneeling position, placing his foot on Zaku's back.

"You seem to be very proud of these arms of yours." Sasuke smirked as he started to pull. "You must be very 'attached' to them!"

"Hey, that's enough!" yelled Hunter. He quickly sped over towards Sasuke and Zaku. He flung one hook at Sasuke, forcing him to let go of Zaku and jump back to avoid it. Then he slammed the other hook into the back of Zaku's head, knocking him out.

"And just who are you?" demanded Sasuke

"I'm the guy who protected your girlfriend while you were taking a nap. Now calm down before you do something you'll regret!"

Sasuke tensed up, ready to attack.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Sakura screamed "STOP!" she ran up to Sasuke and flung her arms round him. "Stop, please." she begged in between sobs.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then the black marks on Sasuke's body receded and he dropped to the ground, panting heavily.

"Glad that's over." muttered Hunter as his chains both faded away.

"Sasuke!" Hunter turned round and saw Dosu standing close by. "And you, whatever your name is. Your both too strong. We can't hope to defeat either of you." he placed a small scroll on the ground before Hunter. "We'll strike a deal. I give you this scroll and you let us go."

Hunter was utterly confused. What the heck did he want with a scroll? Then he remembered that kid from earlier, Neji, talking about a scroll. Something to do with the chunin exams.

Cautiously he picked up the scroll "Thanks for the reading material. Now shoo!"

Dosu picked up Zaku's body, then he went over to retrieve Kin. "For the moment we're even." he said "But if any of us should ever meat in combat again-"

"Oh, take a hike will ya. I've heard enough tough guy speeches today."

Dosu walked away, carrying his teammates with him. Once he was gone the other genin team hiding in the bushes came out into the clearing.

Sakura seemed surprised to see them "Shikamaru? Choji?...Ino?"

"Hey, what about me?" asked Hunter "Don't I get a mention. I only saved your life from...whatever those guys were."

"Oh, right. Thanks. Who are you anyway?" asked Sakura.

Hunter gave her a weak smile "I'm still working on that. Call me Hunter."

"Hunter huh?" said Shikamaru in a tired, almost board sounding voice "What are you hunting?"

"The Nobodies."

That earned a confused look from everyone.

"Well it's been fun guys, but I've got...to...hello. What have we here." Hunter's gaze wandered over to the final member of Sakura's team. A small blond haired boy dressed in orange cloths. Outwardly there was nothing weird about him (apart from the whisker like marks on his cheeks), inside though, Hunter could see two hearts in him. One was a normal heart but the other clearly belonged to something much more powerful and, from the amount of darkness in it, it wasn't something nice.

"What's he looking at?" asked Choji.

Hunter reached towards the sleeping boy's chest. The assembled genin got the shock of their lives as Hunters hand passed right through the boy's body. "Oh snap! I wasn't trying to do-huh?"

Hunter noticed that his surroundings had changed. He wasn't in the forest anymore he was in what looked like a...well the best way to describe it is a big, dark concrete room filled with ankle deep water. Looking around Hunter saw that the genin had all disappeared. The only other person here was the blond boy, who was lying down a few feet in front of him.

'Wasn't I right next to him?" thought Hunter as he approached the boy. "Hello?...blondie..." Nothing. "WAKE UP!" the boy jumped awake.

"What the..where...who are you?"

"Hey, I'm Hunter who are you?"

"Erm..I'm Naruto. Hey, do you know where we are?"

Hunter looked around a bit more. "Yeah. I think this is inside you."

"What!?" yelled Naruto "Wait, if this is inside **me** how come how come **you're** here?"

"Beats me. All I did was reach out and poof. What's in the cage?"

Naruto looked confused "What cage?"

Hunter placed his hand on top of Naruto's head and turned him to the left. On the other side of the room was a gigantic cage door beyond which was an impenetrable darkness. "Oh that? I have no idea."

"Well, if it's a cage that means there's something in it. HEY! If anyone's in there speak up or forever hold your peace!"

A pair of massive read eyes opened on the other side of the cage, along with a huge mouth full of teeth.

Naruto instinctively backed away "T-t-that's the...Nine tailed Fox!"

"The what?" asked Hunter.

**"WHO ARE YOU?" **boomed the Fox in a menacing voice.

"I'm Hunter, this is Naruto and you are...really, really big."

**"DO YOU HAVE ANY LAST REQUESTS BEFORE I FEAST UPON YOUR MARROW?"**

"Aren't you stuck in that cage?" Hunter pointed out.

There was a loud clang as the Fox slammed it's claws against the cage door and let out a menacing growl.

"Ok, so you're big and scary. Well guess what I'm scarier!" Hunters eyes glowed a luminescent yellow. As Naruto was standing behind Hunter the only one who saw this was the Fox.

The demons eyes widened in shock **"YOU...YOURE A...BOY! LISTEN TO ME! THIS THING IS NOT WHAT IT APPEARS! DO NOT TRUST IT!"**

Naruto was stunned. The Nine tailed Demon Fox sounded almost...afraid.

'Snap' thought Hunter 'This thing knows'. "And that's my queue to vamoose. See you on the other side Naruto!"

**"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE YOU HEAR ME!" **bellowed the Fox as Naruto's mindscape faded away **"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARRRRRRRRRRR-!"**

"Well that was weird" said Hunter. He was now back in the real world, surrounded by the Hidden Leaf genin. With a groan Naruto woke up as well.

"Huh...Sakura...Sasuke...? " then he saw Hunter "You! It was all real?"

"Apparently." remarked Hunter.

"Wait! What was 'all real'? What just happened between you and Naruto?" demanded Ino.

"Yeah, it was like your hand passed right through him!" added Choji, while opening a bag of potato chips.

"Sorry folks but there are some things you don't need to know." Hunter turned to leave "Oh, almost forgot." he chucked the scroll he was still holding to Naruto. "You guys need this more than I do."

"Hey! Thanks!" said Naruto.

"Wait! If you give us your scroll how will you finish the chunin exams?" asked Sakura.

"I'm not in the exam." answered Hunter he jumped up onto a nearby tree branch and looked back down at the group "By the way" he lifted up the 'Icha Icha Paradise' book "if any of you run into a guy called Kakashi tell him I still have his book and I'm going to keep sending it back to him piece by piece!"

"What? How did he get Kakashi-sensi's book!?" asked Naruto.

Hunter turned around and jumped off into the forest.

"That...was weird." said Ino.

"It was something." agreed Shikamaru.

Naruto was the most confused out of all of the genin. He couldn't shake what the Fox and told him. "**DO NOT TRUST IT!...I KNOW WHAT YOU ARRRRRR-!"**

'Just who or what was that guy?' he thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four is now up.

As always please rate and review.

* * *

Hunter was really starting to get sick of the forest. He'd spent hours jumping from tree to tree and had found nothing accept hostile ninjas. By now he was convinced that he was going in circles. He stopped suddenly when he heard a loud crash from further away in the forest.

'A battle?' he thought. 'So do I head towards it or away from it?...Oh what do I have to lose!' Hunter bounded off in the direction of the sound.

It didn't take long to find the source of the commotion. There were two people down on the ground below. Much to Hunter's surprise one of them was Anko , the other he didn't recognise. Hunter could tell from the damage to the area that the two had been fighting. Technically they still were fighting but it wasn't going well for Anko. She was down on one knee, clutching at her left shoulder. Hunter could see the magic in her curse mark firing up. He didn't know what exactly it was doing but it was obviously causing her a great deal of pain.

"Look out below!" both Anko and her opponent looked up just in time to see Hunter dropping down towards them. Hunter aimed a punch at the man but he jumped out of the way and landed on a tree branch.

"Hey! Don't you know it's rude to attack a lady! I swear, no one in this forest has any manners."

Anko looked up at Hunter in surprise 'What's he doing? Why did he interfere?'

"And just who might you be?" asked the man in a cold, insidious voice. Now that Hunter had a better view of him he could see this man wasn't normal. He had unnaturally pale, almost white skin, with snake like eyes, long black hair and the darkest heart that Hunter had seen yet.

'Yeah, this guy's a villain, no question.' thought Hunter. "I am Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod!" he said in his best impression of a Scottish accent. "And you would be?"

"Hmhmhmh. I am Lord Orochimaru."

"Wow, yeah that name doesn't sound evil in the slightest. Why not just call yourself Lord Sauron and be done with it?"

Orochimaru let out an evil chuckle "My my. You are a brave one aren't you."

"Hunter. Get out of here! You have no idea what you're dealing with." said Anko through gritted teeth.

"No but I've got a pretty good idea." Hunter looked back up at Orochimaru "You're the one who put that mark on Anko's neck. And you did the same to that Sasuke kid to. Just what are you up to snake man!"

"Oh you need not concern yourself." he drew a kunai from his back pocket "You have bigger problems right now!" he threw the kunai at Hunter who easily caught it.

"Ha! Is that the best you can-"KABOOM

Hunter hadn't noticed the paper bomb wrapped round the kunai's handle. Orochimaru jumped down from the tree. "Well, so much for the young her-arrcck!."

A long metal chain and hook shot out of the smoke and wrapped itself around Orochimaru's waist, trapping his arms.

"What! These aren't normal chains, I can't break free!"

"Hey, Lizard Lips!" both Anko and Orochimaru looked over at the plume of smoke. As it cleared they saw Hunter standing there, completely unharmed and holding the other end of the chain. "GET OVER HERE!"

Hunter pulled and Orochimaru was yanked off his feet towards him. The chain unwrapped itself as Hunter did a spinning kick that smashed Orochimaru into a tree.

"Haha! I am never going to get tired of doing that!"

Orochimaru didn't stay down for long and within seconds he was back on his feet. 'Hmmm. This one is stronger than he looks. Almost as strong as Tsunade.' That was when he saw Hunters eyes. They were glowing bright yellow. He opened his mouth, allowing his long tongue to hang out. 'So he has a kekkei genkai. Interesting.'

"You gunna fight snake man or just stand there all day doing that tongue thing?"

"Sadly I have other matters to attend to. I'm sure we'll meet again though." With that he slowly sank into the ground. In seconds he was gone.

"That's right, be gone you jerk and make it fast. 'Cause if you don't I'll kick your-"

"Hey!" Hunter looked round at Anko. She was still clutching at her shoulder but now she was standing and holding a kunai in her free hand. "Your coming with me brat. I still have-argg." Anko dropped to one knee in pain.

"Um. You can't even stand. How are you going to bring me in?" asked Hunter. Anko didn't responded, she just gave him an angry look. "That's what I thought." Hunter looked over at the spot where Orochimaru had been 'That snake guy's going to be trouble. Oh I have a very bad feeling about all this.'

He looked back at Anko "Well it's been a fun third date but I've still got a job to do. Catch you later!" Before Anko could stop him he was gone, jumping off into the trees.

"What is he after?" she wondered aloud "He could have killed me or let Orochimaru finish me off. Why didn't he?"

Hunter continued jumping through the forest until he was sure that he'd left Anko far behind him. "Ok. Need a plan...need...a...plan...hmmm." A ray of sunlight shone down through the tree tops, making Hunter look up.

"I have a plan!" Hunter ran up the tree until he broke through the forest canopy. Looking around he could see a large tower in the centre of the forest.

"Why didn't I think of this sooner? Oh well."

It didn't take long for Hunter to arrive at the tower. There had been several groups of ninjas lying in wait but avoiding them was no trouble. Looking through the walls Hunter could see many Hearts inside. Not wanting another fight Hunter shape shifted into his ANBU disguise and snuck in through an open window. With no obvious way to go Hunter simply wandered around the tower, looking for...well he wasn't really sure what he was looking for. He passed a few people on his way. They either ignored him or just smiled and nodded politely.

Eventually he arrived at a huge set of double doors that lead to a large arena. Hunter could see a lot of people through the walls, he recognised some of them as Kakashi, Guy and Sarutobi.

"Well, this seems like where everything's happening. I can't go in the front door. Even in this disguise I'll draw attention. Guess that only leaves teleporting."

Hunter saw a suitable spot to aim for. Right at the far end of the arena was a statue of a pair of hands performing a hand sign. If he could teleport in right behind that he could observe without being seen.

"Ok. Focus...focus..." a black portal appeared around Hunter and in an instant he was transported directly behind the statue. "Ha. Text book teleporting. I'm getting good at this." Hunter dropped his ANBU disguise and carefully poked his head round the statue.

There were a lot of ninjas here. In addition to Kakashi, Might Guy and the Hokage there were also Neji, Lee, Tenten, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji. Another team of three were with them, there was a boy with red fang like marks on both cheeks, another who wore black sunglasses and a girl with the same white eyes as Neji. There were also two other older ninjas behind the younger ones. One woman with red eyes and long black hair and a man with spiky black hair and a beard. Finally there was a man with silver hair and large glasses. Looking at his heart Hunter could tell he was evil and deceitful. Definitely one to watch out for.

On the other side of the room were the three sound ninjas. Standing next to them was a man that Hunter instantly recognised. His appearance may have changed but there was no mistaking that heart. Orochimaru. Looking away from the snake man Hunter focused on the last team.

There was a girl with blond hair and what looked like a large black pole strapped to her back, a boy who wore red face paint and had something wrapped in bandages on his back. The last member of the team was shorter than the other two with red hair and a red symbol on the left side of his forehead. What really got Hunters attention was that, like Naruto, this guy had another Heart.

'So he must have a monster locked up inside too.' thought Hunter. He could see that the boys own heart was full of shadows, definitely not a nice person. Standing lest to the left of them was a tall man with bandages around most of his face. Other than that there was nothing Hunter found interesting about him.

"Let the Preliminary Rounds begin!" announced a ninja that was standing in the arena.

Hunter hid behind the statue and watched the matches. Sasuke went first against a guy called Yoroi. It wasn't an easy fight but Sasuke won using a technique called Lions Barrage. As soon as he was done he was taken away by Kakashi. Orochimaru left too. Hunter wanted to follow but he couldn't leave without being seen.

Next up was a fight between Zaku and the kid with sunglasses, Shino. Shino won by blocking Zaku's air tubs with beetles which ruptured the pipes in his arms. Hunter couldn't help but laugh at that. 'Serves you right' he thought.

The next battle was between the guy with the red face paint, who was named Kankuro and a man named Misumi. It was a short match with Kankuro as the victor. Apparently the thing wrapped in bandages was in fact a humanoid puppet that Kankuro could control. During this fight Kakashi returned but Orochimaru and Sasuke were nowhere to be seen.

Next was a rather heated fight between Sakura and Ino that ended in a tie, both knocking each other out. The next match was Tenten against the blond woman with the black pole-thing, Temari. As it turned out the pole was a giant fan that let Temari control wind. She easily deflected every attack Tenten threw at her then defeated her. After that Shikamaru was pitted against Kin in another short match that Shikamau won using his shadow imitation technique.

The next fight was much more interesting. Naruto was fighting the kid with the red fang marks, Kiba and his dog Akamaru. It was quit the battle, plenty of kicks, punches and a killer fart. In the end Naruto won with a modified version of Sasuke's Lions Barrage.

The fight after that was between Neji and the white eyed girl, Hinata. The match started with Neji intimidating and berating her which confirmed what Hunter already thought of Neji. Total Jerk. Hinata seemed ready to give in but then Naruto started cheering her on. Hunter saw something change in Hinata's heart. It seemed to...grow. She still lost her fight with Neji, and suffered some pretty major injuries into the bargain but at least she'd had the strength to try.

The second last fight was between Lee and Gaara, the guy with the monster inside. Hunter soon found out that he'd been wrong about Gaara. He wasn't just 'not a nice person', he was completely psychotic.

It was an intense fight. Lee was fast and strong but Gaara was protected by a shield of sand that made striking him almost impossible. Later in the match Lee used a technique called Primary Lotus. With his speed and power increased Lee was able to bypass the sand shield and start hurting Gaara. Lee then tried to finish the match using a move called Hidden Lotus but Gaara survived and used his Sand Coffin attack to crush Lee's left arm and leg.

The final fight was between Dosu and Choji. The fight lasted less than a minute and unfortunately Dosu won.

"Congratulations to all of you for passing the Preliminaries!" said the Hokage. "I'm sure our guest had an interesting time observing you all!"

Hunter tensed up 'Does he mean me? No, he can't have seen me!'

"Or did you think I wouldn't notice you hiding behind the statue!?"

'Oh snap!'

Hunter jumped out from his hiding place and landed on top of the statue "For an old guy you have really good eye sight!"

"Hey Hunter!" yelled Naruto in a friendly voice "What are you doing here!?"

"Bit of this, bit of that. Great fight by the way. Even I didn't see that fart attack coming. Hey Neji, how's the arm?"

Neji griped his broken arm and gave Hunter an angry look.

"WHERE'S MY BOOK YOU FEIND!" yelled Kakashi.

"Which part?"

"Huh, Kakashi sensei, have you met Hunter?" asked Naruto.

"Yes, he's a criminal who's escaped from custody, attacked Hidden leaf ninjas, broken into the Hokage's office and defiled my book!"

That surprised everyone.

'He's a criminal' thought Naruto.

"Drama queen. You're making it sound far worse than it actually is." protested Hunter.

"This guy did all that?" said Kankuro "Wow, the Hidden leaf must really be losing its touch if this clown can elude you."

"You're calling me a clown? That's rich, you're wearing more makeup than most fashion models. Plus at least I don't play with dolls!"

That wiped the smirk of Kankuro's face. Now he just looked angry.

Hunter laughed "Don't play with fire man, unless you want-cripes!" Hunter jumped down to the arena to avoid an attack by Kakashi.

"Play time's over Hunter." said Kakashi as he jumped down after Hunter. He was joined in the ring by Guy and the other two older ninjas, Asuma and Kurenai.

"Four against one. Hardly a fair fight." said Asuma.

"You're right." agreed Hunter "I'd better fight with my eyes closed." He placed his left hand over his eyes.

All four jōnin attacked at once, aiming to bring Hunter down as quickly as possible. Suddenly Hunter removed his hand, revealing his glowing yellow eyes.

"STOP!"

All four jōnin were instantly frozen in time. Everyone else was just staring in shock.

While they were frozen Hunter re-arraigned Asuma and Kurenai so they would now collide with each other. He also adjusted Kurenai's arm so her punch would hit Asuma in the crotch. He then pulled down guys trousers and brought Kakashi's head band down over both his eyes.

"Three two one and ACTION!"

Time resumed. Asuma and Kurenai crashed into each other. The male ninja let out a pained cry as his ally's punch hit him in the privets. Guy tripped over and then went red in the face when he realised what Hunter had done. Kakashi stopped in his tracks and lifted his head band, while keeping his left eye covered.

The first thing he saw was his friends in various states of embarrassment. The second was Hunter almost falling over with laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Oh what I'd give for a camera right now! HAHAHAHA! Next I'm taking you out." He pointed at Gaara "I'm taking you out." then at Dosu "I'm taking you down." then Neji "I'm taking you out!" then Kankuro "And I'm taking you out..to diner!" and finally Temari who would have rolled her eyes if she weren't still amazed by the time stop spell.

"What kind of jutsu was that?" asked Sakura.

"It looked like he...stopped time." said Naruto.

"Impossible." they both looked at Shikamaru "No jutsu can stop time. It can't be done."

"Impossible! Pfft. No such thing man. Believe me. If you think stopping time's the only trick I've got then boy are you in for a surprise." Hunters chains and hooks appeared, falling to the ground with a dull metallic thud.

"I haven't even started fighting yet boys and girls. I'm the master of TIME and I demand all of you kneel. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"

While Hunter was having his fun Kakashi had decide to end this farce. He lifted up his head band, revealing his sharingan eye. 'Ok' he thought 'let's see how you handle...what!?' One of the powers that the sharingan grants is the ability to see your opponents chakra, the energy that all ninjas use for ninjutsu and genjutsu. Hunter had none what so ever. 'How can he use such powerful jutsu with no chakra!?'

"Just who are you!?" demanded Kakashi.

"I'm running out of witty alias's for myself. Ok one more." Hunter cleared his throat "I am ULFRIC STORMCLOAK! Jarl of Windhelm and true High King of Skyrim! Bow before me in the name of TALOS!" Hunter took up a mock heroic pose, then he burst out laughing.

"Is he completely crazy?" asked Kurenai.

"If you're only realising that now then you haven't been paying attention." chuckled Hunter.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!" suddenly about a half dozen Naruto clones dropped down from above and charged at Hunter.

"Hey what the-aah! Wow!" Hunter avoided the flurry of blows and jumped back. He swung his chain round in front of him in an arc, destroying several clones but the rest dodged and pressed the attack. One Naruto got really close but had to jump away to avoid Hunter's chain attack.

"So this is the thanks I get for saving you in the forest huh!" said Hunter.

"Yeah well that was before you attacked my sensei." said all the remaining Naruto's in unison.

"He started it!" insisted Hunter. 'I used up most of my magic on that stop spell. Now might be a good time to get out of Dodge.'

"Well as fun as this has been I must make like a tree and Hidden Leaf. Oh that was terrible. Even by my standards." A black portal appeared, swallowing Hunter up. Then it disappeared, along with Hunter.

"He's gone again." said Guy while adjusting his trousers. "And we still don't know anything about him."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that." said Naruto. Everyone looked at him. The blond Ninja was holding a small black rectangle in his right hand. "I got this from Hunters pocket while he wasn't looking."

"HA! Nice work Naruto. The fires of youth really do burn strongly in you!" proclaimed Guy. Everyone else ignored him.

"Great. So what is it?" asked Shikamaru.

"It's...erm...well it's obviously a..."

"You have no idea what that is do you?" said Sakura.

"Well...no. But it has to be important! Why else would he have it in his pocket! Hm. Hey, there's a button on it."

"Don't press it you idiot!" yelled Sakura.

Too late. A small screen on the device lit up and it made several beeping sounds.

Naruto held the device a little closer to his face "Hello?"

On the other end of the line DiZ sighed to himself.

'What has Hunter done now?'


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Hunter re-appeared on top of the Hokage Mountain. Once he'd finally stopped laughing he looked down at the Leaf village.

"Wow. Ok I've had my fun. Back to hunting nobodies. Hmm. Better call DiZ and..." Hunter reached into his pocket and found that his phone was gone. He checked his other pocket, then patted himself down trying to locate his missing phone.

"What the...where did it..." then he remembered the fight with Naruto and his clones. One of the Naruto's had gotten close before Hunter could stop him. He must have pick pocketed him and taken his phone.

"NARUTO!"

This would be a problem. Hunter had gotten better at using the black portals but he still didn't know if he could make it back to Twilight Town on his own.

"Ah Snap. Well, nothing ventured...Ok...focus..fo-eh?"

Hunter looked up at the sky and saw something shinning. It looked like a shooting star. As he watched it got bigger and bigger.

'Wait...it's not getting bigger, it's getting closer! It's coming right at me!'

Hunter jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the star, which crashed just where he'd been standing seconds ago. Hunter got back up and, believing he was under attack, scanned the area for enemies. Finding none he turned his attention to the shooting star.

He cautiously approached the small crater it had made and looked down. He'd expected to find a small lump of rock, what he found was a blue crystal in the shape of a star the size of his hand.

Hunter slowly reached down and picked the star up. It wasn't even warm. He held it up to his ear and gave it a shake.

"Hmmm. Strange...very strange."

Hunter was about to pocket the star and try teleporting again when suddenly it started glowing with an inner light.

Hunter felt himself getting lifted off the ground "Oh..."

If anyone from the Hidden Leaf would have looked up right then they would have seen a strange ball of light rocketing upwards into the sky. And if they'd have listened closely they may have just made out someone yelling "SNAAAAAAAAP!"

After a few minutes of weightlessness and blinding white light Hunter crashed face first into a solid stone floor.

"Ouch." he moaned. Getting up off the floor Hunter took in his new surroundings. He was in a large room with several book shelves lining the walls, two great green metal doors, one behind him and one to his right. In front of him was a large wooden table with a high backed chair and behind that were three windows in the shape of stars and a crescent moon.

Lying at his feet was the crystal star. Hunter carefully avoided that, not wanting to go on another 'trip', and made his way over to the windows.

"Now, let's see where...oh...my..."

Looking out the window Hunter saw a great sea of golden clouds, interspersed with occasional green hills that looked almost luminous. Looking down Hunter found that he was on the top floor of a tower that rested on a small island that was floating amidst the endless sea of bright clouds.

"I am not in Kansas anymore."

"That, you are not." Hunter spun round and saw a man standing next to the wooden table. He was tall with a scowling face, a long gray beard, blue robes and a pointed blue hat covered in yellow stars.

"No doubt you have questions." continued the man.

Hunter didn't know where to start "Who...where...HOW!?"

The man raised up his hand for silence. "I am Yen Sid. This is my tower. And you arrived here by use of my Star Shard. I sent it to you to bring you here."

"Ok, new question. Why?"

"You are a true rarity. A Heartless that not only thinks but also feels and cares for others. I believe that we should have a chance to talk."

"Flattery will get you everywhere. Ok let's talk."

Yen Sid sat down in his chair while Hunter walked round to the other side of the table.

"Now then." began Yen Sid. "I notice that you have already unlocked many abilities including the use of magic."

"How do you know that?"

"I always keep a close watch on the tides of light and darkness. I have been observing you for some time. You have already unlocked the spells Aero, Blizzard and Stop but there are others."

"More spells? Can you teach me?" asked Hunter.

Yen Sid closed his eyes for a moment. "I will teach you two more. The rest I'm sure you can discover on your own."

Yen Sid raised his hand and a book from one of the shelves floated over and placed itself on the table before Hunter. It opened up to a page midway through the book. Hunter lent in to read what it said.

"Reflect is a defensive spell." said Yen Sid as Hunter read. "It will not only protect you from harm but it will reflect any attack in the form of a magical explosion."

Once hunter was finished the book flicked through several more of its pages. "Cure is a healing spell. It can be used on yourself or an ally, but it will use up all of you magic. Use it wisely."

"There is one more thing." said Yen Sid The book flicked back through its own pages until it was almost back at the beginning. "Each spell has three tiers to it. I can give you the knowledge of Stopra, Blizzara and Aerora. The rest you will learn in time."

The book closed then returned to its shelf.

"Ok." now Hunter was paying attention "So...how come every time I use magic I feel...drained. Some spells make me feel more tired than others."

Yen Sid nodded. "Yes, your spells require draw on the magic within you to power them. You can only cast a limited number of spells before you need to regenerate this energy."

"What about Darkness?"

"That is not the same as casting magic spells. It draws on your own inner darkness and therefore it is far more powerful. A normal human would be taking a great risk by using such power but as a Heartless, you will not be affected."

Hunters face lit up. "Cool!"

"A word of warning." said Yen Sid, seriously. "While you may look human now you are still a Hunter of the Dark underneath. Your Heartless instinct to consume the hearts of others will be ever present. Remember what happened with Naruto in the woods."

Hunter shivered slightly. He hadn't even realised what he was doing until it was almost too late.

"Why are you helping me?" asked Hunter.

"The worlds are in great danger, not just the Elemental Nations. I believe that you can help save them."

"Well...thanks...I guess. Hey I don't suppose you could send me back to Twilight Town. I need to get back to DiZ."

Yen Sid nodded. "Ah yes. Tell me Hunter, do you trust DiZ, Riku and Naminé?"

Hunter rubbed his chin "Hmm. Riku and Naminé, yes. DiZ, no. There's just something about him that...He wants to destroy Organisation Thirteen. I don't think anything matters more to him than that."

"A wise answer. I wish you luck in you quest. And should you find yourself lost and unsure where to turn, trust what your Heart tells you."

Yen Sid raised his arms and Hunter disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"*Cough**cough* What the heck was that Yen...Sid?" As the smoke cleared Hunter found that he was now back in Twilight Town. More specifically he was in the main hall of the old mansion. It still looked as dilapidated as ever.

"Hello! DiZ!...Riku!?" when no one answered his calls Hunter decided to search the place. He started by going up the stairs to the second floor balcony and round to the left. At the far end of the balcony was a simple wooden door, just like any other in the mansion.

When Hunter opened it he found the room beyond was very different. For a start it was completely white with an almost shinny quality. The floor was made of black and white squares like a chess board. Stuck to the walls were several simple drawings that all showed a boy with spiky blond hair.

"Hello Hunter."

Hunter looked to his right and saw Naminé sitting in an ornate white chair. She finished her drawing and put her sketch book down.

"Hey Naminé. Any sign of Riku and DiZ?"

The girl shock her head. "No. DiZ doesn't tell me what's going on most of the time. I'm sure he's here somewhere though."

"Right." Hunter looked back at the drawings. "So, you drew all these?"

Naminé's mood seemed to brighten. "Yes. Each one is a memory from-"

"That's quite enough Naminé." A black portal appeared to Hunters left and DiZ appeared from it.

"Hello to you too DiZ." said Hunter. "Listen, there's been a ...hicup. You see my-"

"Yes Hunter I already know?"

Hunter looked puzzled "How?"

DiZ held out his hand, in which was his phone. He pressed the button to turn it back on.

"Was this all he had on him?" Hunter recognise Kakashi's voice instantly.

"I don't know I didn't have time to check all his pockets!" that was Naruto, no doubt.

"It looks like a piece of junk to me." and there was Sakura.

Hunter was suddenly struck by inspiration. He picked up the phone and took a deep breath.

_Back in the Elemental nations_

After Hunter's disappearing act the Hokage had sent his Anbu guards to search for him but he didn't expect them to. Fortunately Naruto had retrieved a...something from Hunters person that might shed some light on his intentions.

The Hokage was currently in one of the upper levels of the forest of death's tower, along with Anko, Kabuto, and the other Hidden leaf genin along with their sensei's. The only ones not present were the Sand Siblings, their sensei and Dosu, who'd gone back to the Hidden Leaf already and Hinata, Rock Lee and Sasuke who were hospitalised.

"Hello...hello?" Naruto was trying to talk to the box again.

"It's not going to answer you back idiot." said Sakura.

Anko plucked the device from Naruto's grip. "Whatever it is I don't think a genin should-"

**"THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS!" **

Anko dropped the box and jumped back. Several ninjas drew their weapons, Ino screamed, Shikamaru, who had been ready to fall asleep, fell over backwards. Naruto leapt into Sakura's arms, only to be dropped seconds later.

**"WE KNOW YOU CAN HEAR US EARTH MEN!"**

_Back in the white room_

Hunter switched off the phone and handed it back to DiZ. "Ha! That'll teach 'em!"

DiZ rolled his visible eye while Naminé let out a giggle.

"Don't suppose I can get another-"

"No." said DiZ adamantly "You'll have to retrieve you old phone from the villagers."

"Great." muttered Hunter. "You were right by the way. There are nobodies in that world but I don't know what they're up to yet. Got a little...side tracked."

"Then I suggest you find out, and quickly. Every minute you waist with your attempts at humour is one more that the Organisation has to prepare."

"I know that. But If I didn't laugh, all I'd do is cry." Hunter made an exaggerated sad face. "Hey, can you portal me back?."

DiZ rolled his eye again, then he raised his hand and a new black portal appeared before Hunter.

He looked back at Naminé and said "Later!" before he walked through the portal.

Stepping out from the portal Hunter found that he was back in the Hidden Leaf, in a rather dirty back alley lined with several foul smelling dumpsters.

"Alright, no more fooling around. No more distractions!" said Hunter as he walked out of the alley. "First I'm getting my phone back, then-Oof!"

No sooner than he'd left the alley Hunter walked straight into someone. That someone was a woman with wild, spiky brown hair, purple lipstick and the same red fang marks on her cheeks as Kiba. Hunter couldn't decide if she was strangely beautiful or drop dead terrifying. Next to her was a large wolf with black fur on the top and white underneath. It was missing its left ear and had an eye patch over its right eye.

"Hey, watch it kid!" said the woman.

"Sorry mister." Hunter couldn't resist poking fun.

"I'm a woman." she snarled.

Hunter cringed "Ouch!"

"You should show respect to your elders boy." It took Hunter a moment to realised that it was the dog that was talking.

"You're a talking dog."

The dog gave an amused snort "Noticed that, did you."

Hunter looked back at the woman "He's a talking dog."

She rolled her eyes "Yes, Kuromaru can talk."

"You're a talking dog!" said Hunter, again.

Kuromaru looked up at the woman "Not very bright is he Tsume."

Hunter finally recovered from the 'talking dog' surprise "Hey, are you related to a kid called Kiba?"

Tsume nodded "Yep. He's my son. I'm guessing your one of his friends?"

"Well...not exactly. I just saw him in the Chunin exams."

Tsume's grin widened "Ah, so your here to take the exams are you?"

"Erm..yes, yes. The exams. Say, do you know where Kiba, Naruto and the rest o them are? Only they have something of mine and I need it...what?"

Tsume had started giving Hunter a strange look."You seem familiar." she turned her head to look at her dog, who was also examining him carefully.

"Hmm. Wait, I think he's the one who broke into the Hokage's Tower!" said Kuromaru.

"What? No, no. That's not me."

"It's him! He matches the description. Black hair, red symbol, annoying attitude." continued the dog.

Hunter looked from the now snarling dog to Tsume. "Can I have some last words?"

Tsume cracked her knuckles "Go ahead."

Hunter took a deep breath and yelled "YOU ARE ONE WEIRD LOOKING LADY!"

Then he turned and bolted back into the alley. Tsume and Kuromaru followed but the instant they rounded the corner they were hit by a wave of garbage. To a normal human this would have been revolting enough but the ninja and her dog both had an extremely heightened sense of smell which made it all the worse.

Hunter was standing just ahead of them, holding a empty trash can, the contents of which he'd just thrown over the pair.

"Nice try lady, but as the road runner said to the coyote. MEEP MEEP!" Hunter dropped the can and ran off, with a garbage covered Tsume and Kuromaru following close behind.

They chased Hunter out of the alley, across the street and into another back street where Hunter disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" asked Tsume.

"I don't know! All I can smell is garbage." replied Kuromaru.

"Let's split up and search the place. He can't have gone far."

What Tsume and Kuramaru didn't know was that Hunter was still close by. As soon as he'd made it to the back street he'd dived into an open door, closing it behind him. He listened to their exchange and quietly giggled to himself.

"Hello."

Hunter nearly jumped out of his skin. Turning round he saw a young woman with light brown hair dressed in a white robe with a dark blue apron.

"You must be the new assistant." she continued.

"Assist-wha-" before Hunter could argue the woman put a blue apron around his waist and dragged him through to the front of the restaurant. There was a area for cooking and in front of that a bar with stools where the customers would sit and eat.

"We're going to have a lot of customers today so that means you'll have a lot of orders to fill. Utensils are here, ingredients here and don't forget to wash your hands. Oh, I almost forgot. Welcome to Ichraku's Ramen."

"Wait. I'm not-"

"Get ready you two." said an older, jovial man over by the front of the restaurant. "It's lunch time and everyone's on their way."

"Lunch time! Wait I-"

"Just remember what you learned in cooking school and you'll do fine." said the girl.

"But...but..." Hunter stammered 'Oh, this couldn't get any worse!'

That was when the customers arrived. And each and every one was a ninja. To start with they were all chatting and only interested in the menu. Then they spotted Hunter. At first they just though that he was the new hired help. Then they started to recognise him.

"Oh snap."

"Is...is there a problem?" asked the older man as he nervously looked at his customers.

"You have insurance on this place right?" asked Hunter.

"Well, yes."

"Good, no worries then."

That was when two new customers arrived, still covered in bits of garbage.

"We've been chasing him long enough. I could really use some-YOU!" Hunter winced at Tsume's voice.

"Erm. Hi guys. Bye guys! Blizzara!" several ninjas that were close to Hunter were frozen solid.

He jumped over the ninja-sickles, weaved through the rest of them and ran out into the street, taking off the apron as he went.

Looking over his shoulder he could see the other ninjas right behind him, Tsume and Kuromaru at the head of the group.

"Snap, snap, snap SNAP!"

The ninjas lost sight of Hunter for a moment as he rounded a corner. When they arrived they found that Hunter had disappeared again. The only person there was Sakura.

"Sakura. Did you see Hunter run by just now?" asked Kuromaru.

The girl nodded "Yes, he went that way." she pointed at an ally to the left of the street.

Tsume grinned "We have him now. Sakura, go and tell Lord Hokage that Hunter is back and we'll be bringing him in very soon."

The ninja mob continued their pursuit while Sakura stayed were she was.

"Keep dreaming dog lady." she said in Hunters voice.

Hunter had know that he couldn't out run them all or fight them all so he'd opted to fool them instead.

Looking to his left he saw that he was standing next to a shop that primarily sold kimonos. Suddenly struck by an idea Hunter went inside.

Seconds later he emerged in a new disguise. This new image was basically a female version of himself with long black hair, golden-yellow eyes and red lipstick. He'd also changed his outfit to a white kimono with blue wave patterns, which he'd copied from one of the outfits in the shop.

He took a moment to admire his new look. "Dam, I look good like this. Now, Operation find Naruto and get my phone back is a go!"

As it turned out Naruto wasn't that hard to find. He was in an alley next to a spa where several women were bathing in the hot springs. With him were two other ninjas that Hunter hadn't seen before. One was on the ground, unconscious, the other was an older man with shoulder length white hair, red lines that ran down from his eyes and a wart on the left side of his nose.

Hunter had no idea what was going on between the three of them, nor did he want to know.

"Excuse me? Are you Naruto?" he asked in a sugary, female voice.

The two ninjas instantly stopped arguing and looked at 'her'.

Naruto blushed slightly "Well, yeah...yeah I'm Naruto." he said in a goofy voice.

"Heeello my dear lady!" Hunter looked over at the older man. "I am Jiraiya."

"Yeah, whatever. So Naruto-"

"Jiraiya the Sanin. Legendary ninja, author, sage and lover." continued the man.

"Good for you." said Hunter, dismissively.

Jiraiya looked deflated.

"So Naruto, I heard you fought that Hunter guy all by yourself." Hunter advanced on Naruto, who was still as clueless as ever.

"Well, I wasn't...erm..."

"You're so brave and strong." said Hunter while thinking 'I can't believe that he's falling for this.'

"I heard that you took something from him after your victory. A black rectangle. Where is it now?"

Naruto shuddered at the thought of that thing. "Oh, that. It's with the Hokage. That thing was creepy, there was a voice that came out of it that was just-"

**"DO YOU MEAN THE VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS?"**

Naruto and Jiraiya both jumped several feet into the air at the sound of the deep, otherworldly voice emanating from this girl.

"Hahaha! Oh man you should see the looks on your faces!" Hunter changed back into his male form.

Naruto stared at him wide eyed "Wha- Hunter! B-but you...you were...arrgh!"

"And just who are you?" demanded Jiraiya, once he'd recovered from the shock.

"Name's Hunter. Thanks for the info knuckle heads. I'm off to have a chat with the Hokage. And as for you two." Hunter gave them both his most evil grin. "I have ways of ensuring silence."

Hunter changed back into his female disguise and leapt over the wooden fence into the hot springs.

Naruto and Jiraiya both heard him say "Hey girls! There's two guys out the back there spying on you!"

Then there were several angry screams of "WHAT!" followed by someone yelling "GET THEM!"

"Now would be a good time for us to run kid!" said Jiraiya.

"Wait, what about Hunter and my training!" insisted Naruto.

"If we survive then maybe-"

"THERE THEY ARE!" Naruto looked round and saw a large group of angry women heading straight for them.

"Run!" yelled Jiraiya. Naruto didn't need any further encouragement.

Hunter, still in his female disguise, was standing back and laughing his head off as he watched them go.

"Ok, next stop. Hokage Tower."

Getting in the tower was easier than last time. Hunter looked like a normal woman going about her business, no one challenged him although he did attract some unwanted attention from some of the male ninjas. Hunter couldn't decide if this whole experience was funny or disturbing.

When he arrived at the Hokage's office on the top floor he found that it was guarded by two ANBU operatives and inside he could see the Hokage, Kakashi, Anko, Asuma, Guy and Kurenai.

"No time to be subtle. Oh well..."

_Inside the Hokage's office._

The Hokage was seated at his desk with some of the top level ninja's in the village assembled in his office. They were all looking down at the small black rectangle lying inert on the desk.

"So who are these 'Mysterons'?" asked Asuma. "And how are they connected to Hunter?"

"I have no idea." said Kakashi. "But I think this device is how he was receiving his orders."

"So, the question becomes 'what are his orders?'" said Guy.

"Maybe he's here to annoy us all to death." remarked Anko.

"Yes, Hunter is certainly not a typical shinobi." said Sarutobi. "However, the more I think on what he's said and done-"

The Hokage was interupted when he heard two loud metallic clangs from outside. Everyone else had heard the same thing and they all turned to face the door.

The door was suddenly kicked in and Hunter barged into the room. He'd changed his outfit slightly so that he now wore a thick leather duster and a large rimed hat. He had his head tilted so the rim covered his eyes.

"Mr Sarutobi." said Hunter in an impression of a western gunslinger's voice. He raised in head slowly, letting everyone see his glowing yellow eyes. "Ya'll got somethin' that belongs to me."

For a few seconds no one moved, they just stared at Hunter. Then the jōnin drew their weapons.

"STOPRA!" Everyone except Hunter was frozen in place. Hunter could feel the drain on his magic reserves. That spell used up almost all of his power. He made a mental note to use that one sparingly.

He walked past the frozen ninjas and picked up his phone from the desk.

"Pleasure doing business with ya'll." Hunter was about to get out his pen and apply more of his 'art' to their faces when he spotted something out the window. He walked up to the glass and looked down at the street below. Casually walking down the street were to two nobodies from before. At least he thought they were the same ones. Without hearts it was hard to tell.

Hunter had no time to waist. He retrieved Kakashi's book, tore out another page and placed it in the man's hand. Then he opened the window and leapt out onto the rooftops, changing his cloths back to normal as he went.

"You're not getting away this time. The hunt is on!"

* * *

And that's chapter five done.

Next chapter will include a fight with main villain, Thorn, and a surprise guest character. I won't say who but it's sure to be 'shocking'.

TTFN


	6. Chapter 6

And here's the latest chapter, up and running.

I'd like to thank all those who've reviewed my story thus far. Your feed back is very much appreciated. And to Sam4810, thanks for your suggestions. I'll see if I can use those lines in later chapters.

Just to reiterate my disclaimer: All guest characters are the property of their respective owners and not me.

* * *

Chapter 6

Hunter kept to the rooftops as he followed the two nobodies. Much like the last time they both looked like two normal human women just out having a walk and a friendly chat. You'd only notice something wrong if you were paying attention. By now the sun was setting, bathing the village in golden light.

Hunter followed them both until they halted in a back alley near the edge of the village. Then they both looked up straight at Hunter.

'They saw me! How?' thought Hunter as he jumped down to street level.

"Hey ladies!" the nobodies didn't so much as blink, they just stared at him.

"Quiet types huh? Alright, we do this the hard way!" Hunters chain-hooks materialised and fell to the ground with a loud clang.

The Nobodies forms suddenly began to glow white. When the light subsided the nobodies no longer looked human. They had thin, dragon-like bodies with silver and purple skin and large white wings lined by spikes. Both were wielding strange long laces that were designed to look vaguely like the Nobody Symbol that they wore on their left thighs.

"Oh snap." muttered Hunter.

The nobody on the left rose off the ground and launched itself at him. Hunter jumped over it and ran at the other nobody. He was about to strike it when the creature bent over backwards to avoid him, then it twisted round, slicing Hunter across the back with its lance.

"Ow! That hurt you jerk!" yelled Hunter. The nobody ignored him and jammed its lance forwards.

Hunter dodged to the left. At the same time the other nobody appeared above him and dropped down, trying to impale him.

Hunter rolled out of the way, avoiding the lance but he was caught in the energy shockwave from its attack which slammed him into a wall.

"Ooof! Ok, no more Mister Nice Guy!"

Hunter pushed off from the wall and slammed into the closest nobody, knocking it to the ground. Its comrade tried to attack from behind but Hunter swung round one of his chains which wrapped around the creatures lance. Hunter pulled on the chain, yanking the nobody towards him. Then he kicked it square in the chest, sending it flying backwards while he caught hold of its lance.

The other nobody twisted and warped its body, slithering out from under him and reforming to Hunters left. Hunter gave the lace a twirl then swung it round in a one-eighty degree spin. The nobody dodged by floating backwards. It tried to launch a counter attack while Hunters back was to it but Hunter jammed the lance backwards, stabbing the nobody with the hilt. The nobody shattered in a shower of white shards.

Now there was only one left and it had no weapon.

Hunter pointed the lance at the creature. "Give up yet!"

It didn't reply, it just raised its hand. Instantly the lance vanished from Hunters grasp and reappeared in the nobodies hand. It twirled the weapon round then pointed it at Hunter.

"Neat trick."

The nobody charged at Hunter, planning to impale him. Hunter jumped over it, spinning round in mid air he flung out his chains which wrapped around the creatures body then pulled it towards him. Once it was close he fired two dark bolts from his palms at point blank range that destroyed the nobody.

Hunter landed back on the ground and dispelled his chains. "So much for those two. Oh well."

Hunter was about to leave but when he turned round he found his path out of the ally was blocked. Another nobody was standing a few feet from him. This wasn't just any nobody though. It looked exactly like Hunter except it had the symbol of the nobodies on its shirt instead of the Heartless symbol and it was wearing what looked like a light blue scarf around its neck with four loose ends at the back that came down almost to the floor.

Hunter was almost at a loss for words "Holy...your my...erm...hi."

His Nobody did nothing, it just stood there staring at him.

"Can you talk?" asked Hunter, taking a step closer.

The Nobody nodded slowly.

"Are you going to talk?"

It shook its head.

"Cute. Don't suppose that you'd consider leaving Organisation Thirteen and coming to work for the good guys?"

It shook its head again.

"I was afraid of that." Hunters chains reappeared as he charged at his Nobody. It easily side stepped his attack. Hunter followed up by throwing several punches and trying to catch the Nobody in his chains but it skilfully evaded him. Like the last two, his Nobody seemed to have an astounding level of flexibility. Its body seemed to warp and twist, allowing it to avoid everything Hunter threw at it.

Hunter swung his chains round in an arc, the hooks ripping chunks out of the walls as they went but the Nobody back flipped away.

It came to a stop a few feet away. It raised its left arm and several jagged black and white lines instantly shot out from its forearms right at Hunter.

He managed to avoid them by jumping up onto the wall. Looking back down he saw that the lines had torn right through anything in their path.

"Oh, that is cool."

Hunter jumped at his Nobody, pulling back his arm to deliver a punch. The Nobodies scarf suddenly came to life, the loose ends shot out and wrapped around Hunter's arms and legs, holding him in place.

"Arrck! What the-?!"

The Nobody extended its right hand and a ball of energy formed in its palm. The orb grew larger and larger until it was about the size of a watermelon. Then it pulled its arm back, planning to ram the ball into Hunter.

Someone dropped down between Hunter and the Nobody. Whoever it was it raised their arm, creating a large transparent square shield of energy that blocked the Nobodies attack. The energy ball exploded, creating a powerful gust of wind that swept through the alleyway. The Nobody let go of Hunter and back flipped away.

"Hunter, you ok?" Hunter knew that voice. Riku.

Looking up he saw the silver haired teen standing in front of him, holding his bat wing-like blade in his right hand.

"Riku! Did you have fun waiting for the most dramatic moment to drop in?"

Riku gave a short laugh.

"Riku." Both of them looked back at the Nobody. It was standing further down the alley facing them. The ends of its scarf were moving around slowly like an octopus' tentacles. The creepiest thing about it though was how empty and emotionless it sounded.

It spoke again "Riku."

"Why are you here!?" demanded Riku. "What does the Organisation want?"

It didn't respond.

"Who are you?" asked Hunter "Who am I? Who are **we**!?"

The Nobody tilted it's head to the side. "I am" a black portal began to appear around it "Twilight Thorn." then it was gone.

"He'd make a great Doctor Who." muttered Hunter. Then he looked over at Riku. "So, what brings you here? Other than saving my life."

"I came by to see how you were doing. I didn't expect to find you fighting your own Nobody."

Hunter nodded in agreement "Yeah, that was weird. He said his name was 'Twilight Thorn'. So is he part of the Organisation?"

"No. He's just a very powerful lesser Nobody. I guess you could call him an enforcer, or a herald."

"Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better. Hey, we should probably get out of here, before all the ninjas show up wondering what all the noise is about."

Riku chuckled "Hmhmhm. Yeah. I gather you've made quite an impression. Are you ever going to give that Kakashi guy's book back?"

"I am returning it!" insisted Hunter "Just not all at the same time."

Riku pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "I've still got a lot of things to do so I can't stay long. Here." Riku reached into his coat and brought out three necklaces which he handed to Hunter.

"Stylish jewellery?" asked Hunter. "But I'm fabulous already."

"They're summon charms. Use them to call for help if you need it. These three should be able to help in most situation. And then there's this one." Riku produced a fourth summon charm. "The people in this world can summon large monsters to aide them in battle. This guy can help you even up the odds."

Hunter took the charm and examined it closely. There was an image on the charm that looked like a roaring beast.

"I'd only use him in emergencies though. He's very large. And cranky."

Hunter nodded "Emergencies only. Got it. Anything else?"

"No, that's it. Good luck against Thorn. He may not be part of the Organisation but he looks dangerous."

"His first name is 'Twilight', how tough can he be?"

Riku laughed as he disappeared into a black portal.

Hunter left the alley, wondering where to go from here.

"I'm telling you guys, I heard something over here!" Hunter looked to his right and saw a trio of kids, two boys and one girl. The boy that was leading the group had brown spiky hair and was wearing a yellow shirt with a strange symbol on it, along with a pair of goggles that covered his forehead. The other boy had short brown hair, large spectacles and a drip of snot hanging from his nose. The girl had orange hair tied up in two very large pigtails and bright red blush marks on her cheeks.

"Hey Mister!" yelled the lead boy, even though he was only a few feet from Hunter. "Have you seen anything strange around here?"

"Do you three count?" asked Hunter.

That made the leader angry "Hey, what's that supposed to-"

"Er, Konohamaru?" the one with the runny nose interrupted "I think that this is the guy who broke into your grandpa's tower."

That caught Hunters attention "Grandpa? You're Sarutobi's grandkid!"

For some reason that made the boy even more angry "My name is Konohamaru!" he yelled "Udon, Moegi, get ready. We're taking this guy down!" Konohamaru got into a combat stance. His two friends didn't look as eager as he was but they followed his lead.

Hunter smiled and rotated his right shoulder "Alright. If it's a fight you-Oh, wait!" He reached into his pocket and brought out his new summon charms. "Perfect opportunity for a test drive. Let's see, eni, mini, miney, mo." Hunter picked out one of the charms and put the others away.

"Alright, let's see what these can do!" The charm began to glow, then it disappeared.

"Wait, what just...huh?" Hunter felt something on his head. He looked up and saw a small yellow creature looking back at him.

"Pikachu."

"Erm. Hi."

The strange creature leapt off his head and landed in front of him. It had yellow skin with long black tipped ears, three brown bands on its back, large black eyes, bright red dots on its cheeks and a lightning bolt shaped tail.

Konohamaru and his friends were probably more confused than Hunter right now. They didn't know much about summoning jutsu but they knew enough to realise that this wasn't normal.

"Um, Konohamaru? Maybe we should just go and tell the jōnin where he is." said Udon.

"Yeah" agreed Moegi. "I mean, if he can do a summoning jutsu maybe we shouldn't-"

"Oh, come on!" Konohamaru cut her off before she could finish "He doesn't look that tough. Besides, all he summoned was that small yellow mouse thing! How dangerous can it be!?"

"Pika! Pika, Pikachu!"

"I think you made him mad." muttered Hunter.

"GET HIM!" Konohamaru charged at Hunter, his friends still weren't convinced this was a good idea but they followed him anyway.

"Pika...CHUUUUUUUUU!"

All three children were struck by a bolt of lightning that erupted from the mouse-like creature's body. When the flow of electricity stopped the three of them crashed to the ground, unconscious.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side." said Hunter. He walked over to the children and knelt down next to the one called Moegi. "Are they all right?"

"Pika, pika pi."

"If you say so. Come on, we'll take these guys back to Sarutobi."

"Pikachu?"

"Yes, Konohamaru too."

Pikachu gave Hunter an annoyed look "Pika! Pika pika pikachu!"

"I know he's rude, but still that's no reason to leave him out here."

Pikachu still didn't look happy but he nodded in agreement "Pika."

"Good, you grab Cornel Custer and I'll take these two. Wait, hang on." Hunter brought out his pen and proceeded to draw a small moustache with goatee on Konohamaru, a twirly moustache on Udon and a large curly moustache on Moegi.

"Ok, I'm done."

"Pika pikachu."

Hunter looked confused "What on earth is a jiggalypuff? Never mind, I don't want to know. Let's just find Sarutobi and give him his grandkid back."

Hunter picked up Moegi and Udon and slung them both over his shoulders. Pikachu grabbed hold of Konohamaru's leg and dragged him after Hunter.

_Back at in the Hokage's office_

Once the stop spell had worn off the first thing that everyone noticed was that Hunter was gone. Again. And once more he'd left another page of Kakashi's book, which said ninja was weeping over. The strange thing was that was all he'd done.

"No face art this time." noted Guy.

"It's certainly out of character." agreed Sarutobi "Why would he leave without taking the chance to humiliate us further?"

"The kid's completely insane, who knows what his reasons are!" said Anko, her distain for Hunter evident in her voice.

"I wouldn't call him insane." argued Kurenai "He's...unusual, yes. But he's definitely perusing a goal here in Konoha."

"Well, he's not here as an assassin." said Asuma "He's had plenty of chances to kill all of us and he's passed them all up in favour of his...humour."

"None of this makes sense!" declared Kakashi "First Hunter suddenly appears out of nowhere in the village. He has impossible jutsu and an unknown kekkei genkai, yet all he does with them is humiliate us. Then he goes to the forest of death, saves Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Anko, then he came back to embarrass us all over again. Shikamaru said that Hunter told him he was here hunting the 'nobodies', whoever or whatever they are. And then there's that device, whatever that was."

"Yes, it is quiet the mystery." agreed Sarutobi "Hunter may be gone for now but I suspect that he will resurface soon."

There was a puff of smoke as an ANBU ninja appeared "Lord Hokage. Hunter is approaching the tower, and he has Udon, Moegi and Konohamaru with him."

_Just outside the Hokage Tower._

As Hunter approached the entrance to the tower he was unsurprised to find the Hokage waiting for him at the entrance. He wasn't alone either, with him was Kakashi, Guy, Anko, Asuma, Kurenai and a whole bunch of ANBU ninjas. None of them had drawn their weapons yet but Hunter could tell that they weren't exactly glad to see him.

He carefully put Udon and Moegi down and said "I know it looks bad, but I can explain everything."

"Pika, Pika pi."

Hunter looked down at the electric mouse "Hm, out of time?"

"Pika."

"Well, thanks for your help Pikachu."

"Pikachu." There was a bright flash of light and Pikcahu disappeared. The only thing left was a summon charm that flew into Hunters hand.

"What was that?" asked Asuma.

"It looked like a summon, but I've never seen one quite like that." answered Kakashi.

"Just what did you do to the Hokage's grandson!" demanded one of the ANBU ninja.

"He started it." said Hunter with an offended, child like voice.

Konohamaru groaned and started to wake. He sat up, shook his head, then he noticed his grandfather.

"Hey Old Man. I caught him!" he declared.

Hunter looked down disbelievingly at the boy. "Not the brightest bulb on the tree are you." He looked back at Sarutobi "You two are definitely related, right?"

"What's that supposed to mean!" demanded Konohamaru.

Hunter sighed "Never mind."

That was when Udon and Moegi woke up. They took one look at Konohamaru and burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?!" he demanded.

"Your...your face!" said Moegi through a fit of giggles.

Konohamaru looked over at a nearby window. The look on his face when he saw what Hunter had done was absolutely priceless, and it made his two friends laugh all the more.

"Will you two knock it off!" he yelled. "It's not funny. He's done it to you too!"

Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I just came by to drop off the three musketeers here. Now that's done I've got to get back to work."

"And what 'work' would that be?" asked Guy.

"What Hidden Village are you from Hunter!?" demanded Anko "The Stone? The Cloud?"

"None of the above. As far as I know."

"Your name is Hunter?" said Konoharmaru. "What kind of name is that?"

"Oh, you're one to talk. What kind of name is Konohamaru? Do you guys have some kind of allergy to names with less than three syllables!"

"Hunter." he looked over at Sarutobi. "Our questions still stand. Who are you really? And what is your purpose here?"

"Well, it all started a few days ago when..." everyone listened closely.

"STOPRA!" Hunter grinned as everyone present suddenly froze. He had to make up for leaving early last time. This was going to be his greatest work yet.

When time finally resumed for Sarutobi he realised that Hunter had frozen them all for the umpteenth time. The Hokage saw that his hat had been removed and placed on Konohamaru, who was admiring his reflection in a window.

All the ANBU ninjas had been assembled into a human pyramid that quickly fell apart, with everyone involved collapsing in a heap.

Guy and Kakashi and been arranged in a close embrace. The two rivals rapidly disentangled themselves and went red in the face.

Anko let out a screech as a bucket of ice cold water landed on her head.

Kurenai and Asuma had been left in the middle of what looked like a romantic dance move. They both blushed and quickly went back to standing normally.

And Hunter was, of course, standing close by and laughing his head off.

"I'm going to kill him!" growled Anko.

"You'll have to catch me first!" yelled Hunter as a black portal appeared around him. Anko jumped at him but she was too late. Hunter had already disappeared.

"ARRGG! I hate that kid!" roared Anko.

_Elsewhere in the village._

Hunter reappeared back in the alley behind Ichiraku's Ramen, still laughing to himself.

"Hahahah. I'm never going to get tired of messing with them. It's just so easy." He walked out of the alley, already planning his next big prank.

To keep from drawing any more attention he changed shape into his female disguise.

"Hey there!"

Hunter looked round and saw a young woman running up to him. She had brown hair, tied back in a pony tail but her most distinctive feature was the two red fang marks on her cheeks. 'Just like that Tsume woman.' thought Hunter 'Maybe they're related?'

"Hey" continued the woman once she'd reached Hunter. "Have you seen three dogs go by?"

Hunter shook 'her' head "Nope. Sorry."

The girl let out a heavy sigh "Typical. I let them out of my sight for five seconds and this happens. Mom is never going to let me hear the end of this."

"Your mom's not Tsume, is she?" asked Hunter.

"Hm. Yes she is. You've met her?"

Hunter nodded slowly, vividly recalling his encounter with Tsume and Kunomaru. "It was...an experience. Let's leave it at that."

"Yes I'm sure it was. My names Hana by the way. Hana Inuzuka."

"If Tsume's your mother, that means that Kiba's your brother right?" asked Hunter.

Hana looked surprised "Yes. You know my brother to?"

"Sort of. I saw him in the Chunin Exams."

"Oh, are you competing to be a chunin too?"

Hunter chuckled "Your mom asked the same thing. No I'm here for something else."

Just then three large dogs came running round the corner. They were all identical with grey fur on top and white underneath.

"There you three are!" Hana put her hands on her hips and stared down disapprovingly at the dogs. "I've been all over the Hidden Leaf looking for you three! Where were you all anyway."

Two of the dogs started yapping at Hanna, while another started sniffing Hunter. The dog looked up at 'her' curiously, then it barked at Hana.

"Something wrong?" asked Hana. The dog made a few more barking sounds. Hana took a step back from Hunter and the dogs started growling threateningly.

"He says there's something wrong with your sent. Who are you?" Hana demanded.

Hunter rolled his eyes "Rumbled by a dog of all things." He changed back into his male form.

Instantly Hana drew a kunai from her back pocket "You're Hunter!" she declared.

"The one and only."

One of the dogs barked a few times, causing the others to emit the canine equivalent of a laugh.

"What did you just call me fuzz ball!?" yelled Hunter.

That surprised Hana 'He can understand the dogs to. I thought only my clan could do that.'

The dog looked equally confused "Arf?"

"Yes, I can understand every word you bark. Call me that again and I'll tell every flea in the village to make you their personal feeding ground, got that!?"

The dog let out a frightened yelp and ran behind Hana.

Hunter gave Hana a bemused look "So I guess that word about me is finally starting to spread. Kakashi and Anko been talking about me behind my back huh?"

"The Hokage made sure at all the village's ninja know about you." said Hana, not lowering her guard. "You have powerful jutsu, a kekkei genkai, and an obnoxious personality."

"That's me in a nutshell. But I still think you guys made just made 'kekkei genkai' up. What does that mean anyway?"

"Quite playing stupid!"

"Who says I'm playing?" asked Hunter jokingly. 'Hm. Counting the pups it's four against one. And I still don't have enough magic for another stop spell yet. I really should learn not to spam those.'

Hana decided to make her move. "Alright triplets, let's go!"

Hunter jumped back, narrowly avoiding a kunai Hana threw at him. Two of the dogs attacked from either side. Hunter punched the one on the left and kicked the one on the right. The third dog leapt up at him and tried to bite his head off. He stopped it by grabbing hold of both its jaws, which were very close to his face.

"Seriously...take a breath mint."

He threw the dog aside, aiming it at Hana. She jumped over it and ran at Hunter, bringing out another kunai and throwing a few shuriken.

"Aerora!" A powerful shield of wind appeared around Hunter, blocking the shuriken. Hana halted her attack and leapt back to form a new strategy.

'An air shield! I'll need something more powerful to get past that.'

"That all you got dog lady!?" Hana gritted her teeth at Hunter's taunt. "'Cause you're really-cripes!" A windmill shuriken passed right by Hunter's face making him jump back.

Looking to his right he saw Kakashi and Guy standing a few feet away.

"Found you." said the sliver haired Jōnin.

"You have great youthful energy Hunter." said Guy "Even I, Might Guy, am impressed by you!" he gave Hunter a wide smile that seemed to 'ping'.

Hunter rubbed the back of his head "Er...thanks. I think." then he looked over at one of the dogs "Did you see that teeth thing too?"

'He hasn't used another time stop yet.' thought Kakashi. 'It must need more time to re-charge.'

"Guy, Hana. We have to take him down now before his time stop jutsu recharges." as Kakashi spoke he lifted his head band, revealing his red sharingan eye.

"Well, you guys better hurry up. It won't be long now." said Hunter, as he got into a battle stance.

"Alright triplets. let's try this again." The three dogs barked in agreement as Hana made several rapid hand signs, then yelled "Fang Rotating Fang!"

Hana and her dogs launched themselves and Hunter and began rolling at high speed in buzz saw like shapes.

"Aerora!"Hunter brought up his air shield just in time to block the four pronged attack. The ninja and her dogs spun against the shield for a few seconds before returning to normal.

Guy launched his own attack as the shield dissipated. Moving at high speed he punched Hunter right in the gut, sending him flying further down the street.

"Ok." grumbled Hunter as he got back up "I definitely felt that."

"My turn." Kakashi ran towards Hunter, throwing a kunai that Hunter easily deflected.

The two exchanged a few blows before Hunter blocked one of Kakashi's punches and managed to hit him in the chest. Hunter was surprised when Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a damaged log. Sensing that the jōnin had reappeared behind him Hunter spun round, blocking another strike from Kakashi.

As Guy observed the fight it became more and more apparent to him that something was wrong.

His concerned look drew Hana's attention. "Guy, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Kakashi's sharingan should be letting him read Hunter's movements. Except it's not. I don't know how he's doing it but Hunter is negating the sharingan."

Hunter jumped over Kakashi, then he spun round as his chains materialised. Kakashi only just avoided being struck by the hooks, which ended up breaking through a wall.

"Hana. You and the Harimaru brothers must go and find the other jōnin. Tell them where Hunter is. We'll hold him here." said Guy.

Hana nodded. "Right. You three heard him. Spread out!" the dogs all ran off in separate directions, then Hana left too, heading towards the Hokage's Tower.

Hunter dodged another punch, then he jumped over towards Guy. "Hey, where'd Hana go?"

"She's gone to bring the other jōnin." answered Guy, as he got into a combat stance. "There will be no escape for you this time."

"Did she leave her number?" asked Hunter, hopefully. He jumped to the side to avoid a kick from Guy. "I'll take that as a 'no'."

Hunter swung his left chain at Guy, who easily dodged it by leaping over it. Hunter's chain changed direction of its own accord and wrapped around a shocked Guy's arm.

"Now, get over-oofff!" Hunter had been about to pull Guy towards him but he'd let his guard down and Kakashi had taken the opportunity to punch Hunter in the face.

Hunter was thrown sideways, the chain around Guy unwrapped and flew back to him as he landed.

"Well, this kid certainly is challenging." said Guy. "It looked like you were having trouble keeping up Kakashi."

"Hmph. Hunter's still not down yet. We just need to hold him here a little longer."

As they watched Hunter started to get back up. A black aura had covered his body with dark wisps that coiled upwards. His eyes had taken on a yellow glow and Kakashi felt like they were somehow seeing into him.

"That black stuff. What is that?" asked Guy.

"No idea. But it can't be anything good."

Hunter shot forwards and before Guy could react Hunter punched him in the gut. Guy was thrown backwards into a shop window which shattered on impact.

Kakashi brought out another kunai and slashed at Hunter but he ducked under Kakashi's arm and kicked upwards. The force of the kick launched Kakashi into the air. Hunter jumped up after him, landing another mid air kick, and another, and another. Then he vanished.

Kakashi briefly wondered where he'd gone, then he felt Hunter's chains wrapping around his torso. Looking down, he saw that Hunter was back on the ground, still covered in the black aura. He pulled on the chains, sending Kakashi crashing into the ground.

Before Kakashi had a chance to get up Hunter was kneeling down next to where he lay, pulling back his arm and preparing to deliver a claw like strike to Kakashi's heart.

Hunter's arm shot forwards. Then his other arm grabbed it, stopping his own attack just short of Kakashi's chest.

This was not what Kakashi had been expecting to say the least. Hunter's chains suddenly vanished, allowing Kakashi to get away. Guy climbed out of the shop window and ran over to his rival's side.

"Kakashi. You alright? What's happening to him?"

Hunter's black aura became more and more violent. "What...why did I..."

'Looks like his powers do have a downside' thought Kakashi. "Hunter?"

Hunter looked over at the two jōnin. "Who?...Do I...know you -ARRGHH!" Hunter doubled over, clutched at his head, then he fell unconscious. A large dark portal appeared below him and Hunter slowly sank into it. In seconds he was gone and the portal vanished.

Guy and Kakshi just stared at the spot where Hunter had been. Then the other ninjas, along with Hana and her dogs, showed up.

"Kakashi, we're here!" said Anko, then she looked around. "Where's Hunter?"

"He's gone." answered Guy.

"This means I'm never going to get my book back." groaned Kakashi

* * *

Well, look's like Hunter's powers have drawbacks after all.

If anyone has any character's they'd like to see as summons, let me know and I'll see what I can do. No promises though.

Tune in next time for more magic, mayhem and a fight between Twilight Thorn and Hiashi Hyuga. (Spoiler: it doesn't end well for Hiashi)


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"I'm Riku, this is Naminé and DiZ"

"Hunter of the Dark"

"Who are you!?"

"What are you hunting?"

"Naruto."

**"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE!"**

"I am an avenger"

"I think we've got a hero here"

"My name..."

** "THIS THING IS NOT WHAT IT APPEARS"**

"Lord Orochimaru."

"...is Twilight Thorn"

Hunter bolted upright. He didn't know how long he'd been out or what had happened to him, but he was clearly not in the Hidden Leaf anymore. He was in a side street of a city, but it wasn't an ordinary city. All the buildings were black in colour with windows that shone with a dull yellow light. The road he was standing on was made from black and dark blue stones. The strangest thing though was how quiet it was. There were no normal city sounds like crowds talking or car horns blaring. There wasn't even any wind.

"Hello!?"

_"Hello!?"_

_"__Hello!?"_

_"Hello!?"_

The only reply Hunter got was his own voice echoed back at him by the buildings.

"Snap." Hunter murmured. With no obvious way to go Hunter started walking, hoping that he'd find something, anything that told him where he was. As he walked through the black city his thoughts turned to his fight with Kakashi and Guy.

He'd been about a second away from turning Kakashi into a Heartless. 'What if I lose control again? What if next time I don't stop myself?'

Eventually Hunter emerged from a side street on to a large plaza. At the far end was a colossal skyscraper that towered over the others. Up at the top were several large TV monitors that showed nothing but static. Hunter didn't know why but he felt drawn to the skyscraper. He walked towards it, tilting his head back so he could still see the screens.

One of the monitors crackled into life. It showed Naminé in the white room, drawing in her sketch book. The image changed to Riku, DiZ and Naminé together outside the Old Mansion.

'Wait a minute' thought Hunter 'I recognise this...these are places I've been. These are my memories!'

The other screens came to life and began to play more of Hunter's memories. One showed the fight between him and the three sound ninja. Another was of his first meeting with Orochimaru. For several minutes the screens continues to flicker between different memories, then they all change to the same image.

On the screens was a woman that Hunter had never seen before. She had blue hair, strange clothes and she was armed with a...

The screens all turned to static.

"What was that?" Hunter wondered aloud. "I don't remember that woman. It must have been from before I met Naminé. When I was still..."

Hunter's shoulders slumped. He'd never thought about the time he'd spent as a Hunter of the Dark. Who knew how many lives he'd ruined, or how many people he'd turned into Heartless.

Hunter turned to leave, then he stopped. The once empty plaza was now filled with Heartless. They were all identical, humanoid in appearance but with no mouth, nose or ears. Their bodies were jet black in colour with long crooked antenna that fell down over their shoulders and bright, almost glowing, yellow eyes.

None of them made any aggressive moves, they just stood there, staring at Hunter and he stared right back. He slowly raised his right hand and waved at them. They didn't react.

Hunter carefully walked towards the assembled mass of Heartless. As he approached they parted to let him pass between them, never taking their eyes off him.

When Hunter reached the middle of the crowd he stopped and looked around. He was now standing in the centre of a horde of Heartless and yet he felt strangely...at home.

Hunter shook his head. He needed to get out of here, away from this world. He closed his eyes and focused on the Elemental Nations. A black portal appeared around him and he was gone.

The Heartless stayed for a moment, then they all disappeared into the shadows.

Once more the black city was empty.

_Back in the Hidden Leaf_

The compound of the Hyūga clan was one of the most secure places in the entire village. Throughout the years many enemies had tried to steal the secrets of the clans kekkei genkai, the Byakugan, and while some had come close, they had all failed.

The current head of the Hyūga family was Hiashi Hyūga, and he was less than pleased to discover that someone had broken into his clans secret library, which contained knowledge of not just the Byakugan but all his clans secret jutsu and techniques.

He had been in the middle of a training exercise with his youngest daughter, Hanabi, when he'd been informed that someone had tripped the library's security seals. So Hiashi was now marching into the library, along with two guards from the branch family, to find out just who was trying to steal his clans secrets this time. Needless to say, he wasn't in the best of moods right now.

The Hyūga clans library consists of two levels. The ground floor contains information that is freely available to all members of the clan and some trusted outsiders. Below that is the secret library where only certain members of the clans main family are allowed due to all the sensitive and valuable information stored therein.

When Hiashi entered the underground library he had expected to find an enemy ninja gathering up as many scrolls as he could. What he found instead was Hunter, standing just a few feet away. Hiashi recognised him instantly from the description that he Hokage had given, black hair and cloths. The only difference was that he had a blue scarf now.

The boy didn't seem to notice Hiashi's arrival as he picked up a scroll, opened it and...

"No." he tossed the scroll aside and moved on to the next one.

Looking at the floor Hiashi could see that Hunter had gone through quite a few scrolls. The thought of someone stealing his clans secrets was bad enough, but seeing Hunter treat them like disposable garbage was more than his pride could stand.

"Hunter!" Hiashi's voice was thick with anger, but Hunter ignored him and moved on to a new scroll.

"No." the scroll joined the others on the floor.

Hiashi signalled the guard on his left to attack. The man nodded and ran at Hunter, jamming out his palm to strike at the intruder.

Without looking away from the scroll he was holding Hunter grabbed the man's arm, then he spun round so he was now behind the guard, pulling the man's arm with him. He dropped the scroll and used his free hand to deliver a chop to the guards outstretched arm. Hiashi heard a loud snap as the bone broke and saw the arm bend in a way it wasn't supposed to. Hunter's leg snapped out, making contact with the guards back and sending him flying.

The man crashed face first into the back wall, then slumped to the ground. He didn't get back up.

Hunter selected another scroll. "No."

Hiashi signalled to the other guard. This man was far more cautious than the last. He started approaching Hunter, already scanning him for weak points. Hunter raised his right arm. Before the guard could move four black and white lines appeared around the boy's forearm and shot forwards. They wrapped themselves around the Hyūga guard then they yanked him towards Hunter.

He crashed into Hunter's outstretched fist, breaking several ribs. As the man started to fall Hunter seized hold of him and slammed him into the ground with enough force to brake the wooden floor.

Then he moved on to the next scroll "No."

Hiashi had had enough. He charged at Hunter, channelling chakra into his palms. He'd barely gone a few steps when the boy's scarf sprang to life, the loose ends wrapping around the clan head's arms and legs, holding him in place. "Will you please stop." said Hunter in an emotionless voice "You're distracting me."

"The secrets of the Hyūga clan don't belong to you Hunter!" yelled Hiashi. "More guards will be waiting for you outside, you can't escape this time!"

Hunter turned his head so he was now looking at Hiashi. The head of the Hyūga clan had seen many ninja who hid their emotions but this was different. It was like there was nothing inside Hunter at all.

The scarf tossed Hiashi aside and Hunter went back to reading, then throwing scrolls. As soon as Hiashi's feet touched the ground he charged at Hunter again, hoping to catch him unawares. No such luck. Hunter spun round and batted Hiashi's palm away, then he delivered a punch to the clan head's chest. The blow lifted Hiashi off the ground but before he could go far Hunter grabbed his shirt and slammed his knee into the man's gut, winding him.

"I was told that your clan were powerful warriors." Hunter's scarf wrapped around Hiashi again, lifting him up off the floor. "It appears I was misinformed." Hunter picked up the last remaining scroll. "No. I've been wasting my time."

Hunter dropped Hiashi and began to walk away.

"You'll pay for this Hunter!" spat Hiashi as he struggled to his feet. "I won't forget what you've done here!"

"Good. It's nice to know someone will remember." a black portal appeared in the wall that Hunter was heading for. "And stop calling me Hunter. My name is Thorn." He walked through the portal and was gone.

_Hokage Tower. A short time later._

The Hokage first heard of Hunter's return he'd been locked in an epic battle with his arch foe. Paperwork. He was almost glad for the interruption. His first action was to summon any ninja above genin rank who'd ever come into contact with Hunter. Soon everyone was assembled in one of the tower's meeting rooms, including Hiashi Hyūga. Well, almost everyone.

"Where is Kakashi?" asked Sarutobi.

"I'm not sure. He's probably still training Sasuke for the exam finals." answered Guy.

"Then we'll have to start without him. You've all probably heard by now that the Hyūga clan's archives were broken into this morning."

"So who was it?" asked Tsume Inuzuka. "The Hidden Cloud again?"

Sarutobi shook his head. "No. The culprit was Hunter."

That piece of news set off murmurs around the room.

"So, he's back then." growled Tsume. "I thought that brat died fighting Kakashi and Guy."

"Well, not exactly." admitted Guy "It was more like he...disappeared."

"Whatever the circumstances he has returned, however he is not the same." the Hokage looked over at Hiashi, who had a load of bandages covering his chest, forehead and right arm. The hospital had wanted him to stay longer but the Hyūga clan had an image to maintain. The Hyūga elder stood and told the assembled shinobi everything that transpired in the library.

"Focused. Brutal. Emotionless. That doesn't sound like the Hunter we all met." muttered Anko.

"He sounds like a totally different person." agreed Asuma "I think I preferred him as an annoying prankster."

"How could he have changed so much in such a short space of time?" asked Guy.

"It's not just his personality that's changed." said Kurenai. "He has new powers and a new name. Thorn. Could that be his real name? And how exactly did this change from Hunter to Thorn come about?"

"It seems every time Hunter appears he leaves us with more questions." sighed Sarutobi. "Still, this latest incident is an attack on the Hidden Leaf. We must find him before he causes more harm."

_Elsewhere in the village_

A black portal appeared on the rooftops of the village and Hunter stepped out.

"That actually worked!" he almost yelled with joy. "Ok...now what do I do? Hmmmm."

*Ring ring.*

Hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Hello?"

"Hunter." DiZ's voice came out of the phone's speaker. "Where have you been!? I've been trying to contact you for almost three weeks now."

"Three weeks!" Hunter yelled in surprise.

"Yes. What happened to you?"

Hunter quickly summed up the events of his fight with Kakashi and Guy and his arrival in the black city.

"That city sounds like a Heartless world, somewhere close to the Dark Realm. You must have transported yourself there by accident." said DiZ.

"Well it defiantly wasn't a planned vacation." muttered Hunter.

"You must strive to keep your instincts in check. If you lose control you may well revert back to the Hunter of the Dark."

"Tell me something I don't know! Do you have any proper advice?"

There was a moment's pause. "Nothing that you'd heed. For now continue searching for the nobodies. Contact me again when you have something to report."

"Define 'somethi-'...DiZ...DiZ... He hung up on me again!"

Hunter put his phone away and change into a perfect copy of Naruto, right down to the hideous orange outfit. He covertly got down from the roof and onto the main street. As he walked he passed by the Ichiraku's Ramen building and was briefly haunted by a flash back of his near miss with Tsume and the other ninjas.

He was about to walk on when a thought suddenly struck him. In all the time since he'd arrived here he had never eaten or drank, yet he was neither thirsty nor hungry. This was concerning to say the least. Hunter went into the ramen bar, planning to order some food, until he realised he had no money.

"Ah, Naruto!" it was the owner of the restaurant that had spoken, the same middle aged jovial man he'd seen last time. "Here, have a bowl of ramen on the house. You've got a big day tomorrow."

"Um. Thanks." said Hunter. He sat down and the girl with brown hair, whose name was Ayame, brought him a steaming bowl of ramen.

"Careful." she warned "It's hot."

Hunter picked up a pair of chopsticks and used them to grab one of the pieces of meat floating in the bowl. Despite Ayame's warning it wasn't hot. In fact it had no taste at all, he might as well have been eating cardboard. Both Ayame and her father, Teuchi noticed 'Naruto's' disappointed expression. Normal this would have been suspicious but with the chunin exam finals tomorrow they just put his reaction down to nerves.

Hunter was about to leave when he heard some of the other customers talking. Apart from him, Ayame and Teuchi there were three other people sitting at the bar. The closest was a man with blond hair that was spiky on top and ended in a long ponytail. Next to him was a thin man who had two scars on the right side of his face, black hair that he wore in a pineapple like style and a goatee beard. The last man was a good deal larger than the other two. he had red hair and purple marks on his cheeks.

All three were about middle aged and all obviously ninjas.

"You heard?" asked the blond one. "Someone broke into the Hyūga clan's library this morning."

"What? No way, I thought they had that place locked up tight after what happened with the Cloud." replied the larger ninja.

The blond shrugged "That's what I heard. Apparently whoever did it got caught by Hiashi Hyūga."

"Can't imagine that ended well for him." said the one with black hair, dismissively. He looked like he was about to fall asleep.

"Ah, but that's the interesting part Shikaku. The rumour is Hiashi lost. Quite badly to."

That caught Shikaku's attention "What? Really? That's troublesome."

"Yeah. I know one of the doctors from the village hospital and he told me that two Hyūga's were hospitalised and Hiashi was treated for minor injuries."

"Do they know who did it?" asked the red head.

"No. The Hyūga clan isn't talking, but some people are saying it's that 'Hunter' guy."

"What!" yelled Hunter. The three ninjas looked over at him. "That's impossible!"

"And how would you know that Naruto?" asked the blond ninja.

"Because I'm Hunter." he shape shifted back to his true form. The ninjas almost fell off their seat's in surprise. "And I only got back here five minutes ago so how could I have...Thorn."

The three ninjas had gotten back up and were now in a battle formation.

"Alright, tell me where this 'Hyūga clan library' is. NOW!" Hunter demanded.

"Not a chance." said the blond. "Whatever you're up to Hunter, it ends here. Battle formation! Ino!"

"Shika!"

"Chō!"

Hunter's chains materialised by his side. "Bring it!"

_Outside the ramen bar_

Anko was not enjoying her latest assignment. Once the meeting with the Hokage was over he'd ordered them all to patrol the village for any sign of Hunter and send word to him when they found him. This was all part of the Hokage's plan to get around Hunter's time stop jutsu and while the idea of finally getting one over on that obnoxious brat was grand, she still had to find him first.

Anko was about to pass by Ichiraku's Ramen when something came flying out of the shop and crashed into the ground in front of her.

It took her a moment to recognise that something as Chōza Akimichi. Before she had time to ask what the hell was going on someone else shot out of the ramen bar with a cry of "Aga Saga!"and landed right on top of the plus sized ninja.

It was Hunter. "If you like eating so much you can dine on my...hi Anko!"

Anko blinked several times. Hunter seemed normal, well normal by his standards anyway, not at all like the emotionless warrior that Hiashi had described.

Two more ninjas emerged from Ichiraku's Ramen, Shikaku Nara and Inoichi Yamanaka. Chōza landed a punch on Hunter while he was distracted, knocking him to the ground.

Hunter was now surrounded by all three members of Ino-Shika-Chō, but despite that he didn't seem worried. If anything he looked like he was having fun.

Shikaku made several hand signs. "Shadow possession jutsu." Shikaku's shadow grew longer until it reached Hunter's feet. For those who don't know, the Nara clan's shadow possession jutsu is a technique that forces you opponent to mirror your movements, like a shadow. Of course it's probably not the best thing to use on someone who can control darkness.

"Got you now!"

Hunter smirked, then he punched himself in the face, with Shikaku mirroring his movements.

"Who's got who?" asked Hunter, sounding very self satisfied.

He side stepped a strike from Chōza's bō staff and Shikaku unwillingly copied him. Struck by inspiration Hunter began dancing his own interpretation of _Thriller _while avoiding Chōza and Inoichi.

"Hahaha. This is FANTASTIC!" Hunter twirled round to avoid four snakes that shot out from Anko's sleeve.

"Stop that!" demanded Shikaku.

"No, it's too funny." Hunter had to duck to avoid Chōza again. Shikaku used the brief opportunity to end the jutsu.

"Kill joy." Hunter jumped onto Chōza's bō then kicked him in the face.

The Akimichi clan head reeled back. "Argh! Let's see you get out of this. Expansion jutsu!" Chōza channelled his chakra into his left arm causing it to rapidly expand to the point where he was able to grab Hunter in his hand.

"Inoichi! Now!"

The blond hair ninja nodded and began making hand signs. "Mind transfer jutsu!" Unseen by everyone else Inoichi's mind left his body as he fired his spirit at Hunter.

Acting on their own, Hunter's chain's rose up off the ground and slammed into Chōza's chest, knocking him off his feet and forcing him to release his hold on Hunter. The boy turned to face Inoichi and jammed out his arm, grabbing hold of the man's spirit before it could enter his body. This would have been impossible for a human but Hunter was a Heartless. The same rules don't apply.

"Your soul is mine." said Hunter. He punched Inoichi's spirit in the gut, the damage translating to his physical body, then threw him back into his own body. Once his soul was back Inoichi doubled over in pain.

Everyone stared at him in shock.

"How...how did he do that?" asked Chōza, still not quite able to believe what he'd just seen.

Anko gritted her teeth "No idea." Inwardly she thought 'Just when I thought he'd run out of tricks he comes up with something new.'

"He has to have some weakness." said Shikaku.

Hunter let out a tired sigh. "Look people, we all know how this will end. We exchange some insults, then you attack me again and I beat the crap out of you all. This time can we...just..."

What happened next was possibly the weirdest thing Hunter had seen yet. A large cat with brown fur and a red ribbon tied round it's ear ran out between the ninjas and Hunter. It stopped and tried to remove its ribbon by scratching at it with its back legs.

"Tora!"

The cat let out a frighten meow and ran off.

The source of the voice was a woman who looked to be in her forties, and from all the makeup and jewellery she was wearing, she was some kind of noble. She ran past the ninjas and Hunter, apparently not noticing any of them as she chased after her cat.

"Tooooraaaa! come back my kitty kitty!" she had a voice that could curdle fresh milk.

The cat ran faster and took a left at the end of the road, with its owner not far behind.

The entire group just stared after them, open mouthed.

The silence was broken by Hunter "What the flying fish was that!?"

With Hunter distracted Anko signalled the other to attack. They all got about five steps before...

"STOP!"

The group halted as Hunters spell caught them. Then he noticed the expressions frozen on Anko's face.

"Just what are you smiling about?"

He didn't have to wait long for the answer "Hello again Hunter."

He recognised the voice of Sarutobi, who was standing right behind him. He slowly turned round and sure enough the Hokage was directly behind him.

"Ah, I get it. You hung back and waited while Anko got me to use stop. Clever."

Sarutobi chuckled "I wasn't called the 'God of Shinobi' for nothing, Hunter."

"So, what now? Fight time?" asked Hunter, nervously.

"That depends on you. I still have questions for you Hunter."

Hunter folded his arms "You'll never get me to talk copper!"

The stop spell on Anko and the others wore off. They halted their attack, quickly took in the new situation and stood their ground.

Anko smirked at Hunter. "Final pulled one over on you."

"Oh don't pat yourself on the back yet. I've still got enough go-go left for one more stop." Anko's smug expression vanished instantly. "Didn't know that. Did ya. Now say good-"

"What is your name?" asked the Hokage.

Hunter puffed out his chest and pointed at Sarutobi "I am the terror that flaps in the ni-"

"You don't know the answer. Do you."

All the humour drained right out of Hunter.

"That's why you keep giving these aliases." Sarutobi continued "It's all an attempt to cover the truth. You can't remember your own name."

Hunter's silence was all the answer he needed.

"And the cause of your amnesia. It has something to do with the powers you use. Correct?"

"It's more complicated than that." muttered Hunter. "And the less you all know, the better. You'll all be safer if you just..." Hunter turned round and looked down at the other end of the street. Everyone else followed his gaze.

"So, we meet again." said Hunter.

Standing just a few feet away was none other than Naruto Uzumaki. "What the...Hunter! What are you doing here!?" he asked in surprise.

"Well, I was having lunch. Things kinda spiralled from there."

"Naruto! Leave now. Hunter is dangerous!" yelled the Hokage.

"Ah, come on Ji-ji, he's not that tough. I could beat him easily. Believe it!" declared Naruto.

Hunter face palmed. "Heart of a lion. Brain of a turnip."

"Hey! I heard that!" yelled Naruto. He brought his hands together and yelled out "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

With a great plume of smoke roughly fifty copies of Naruto appeared.

"Not this time!" Hunter raised both his arms, which began to glow with a dark aura. A storm of dark bolts erupted from Hunter's palms. In a matter of moments Naruto's clone army was wiped out, leaving only the original left.

Naruto laughed nervously "Haha...Ut-oh."

Sarutobi looked concerned. 'Even after all this Hunter is still holding back.' he thought.

"Alright Naruto, you wanna play?" Hunter's eyes changed to glowing yellow. "Let's play!"

Hunter surged forwards, pulling back his arm to punch Naruto. Without realising what he was doing Hunter's hand opened up just before his blow hit and passed into Naruto's chest.

He had just enough time to say "Oh bol-" and then the world faded away, only to be replaced by the dark stone sewer of Naruto's subconscious mind.

"There are times I hate being like this."

Looking round he saw no sign of the Nine Tailed Fox (aka, the great orange fuzz ball) or Naruto for that matter. The only thing of interest was a wooden door set in the wall that was labelled 'Memories'.

"Interesting." Hunter opened the door and stepped into a medium sized room that was full of metal filing cabinets. He reached for the nearest one and opened the top draw. Inside it was unsurprisingly full of paper files. Hunter picked one up and opened it.

The inside of the file was...well the best way to describe it is like a TV screen that showed images from Naruto's early life, his time in the village orphanage, how he grew up with only a handful of friends, how none of the grownups in the village seemed to even acknowledge his existence.

Hunter close the file and put it back. "That was...I don't even know what to say." he moved on to another cabinet and took out a new file. This time the memoires were a little happier, he saw Naruto's first days in the ninja academy, his budding friendship with his teacher Iruka and his first taste of ramen.

"So that's what ramen tastes like. Not bad."

The finally memory in that file was of how Naruto accidentally ended up kissing Sasuke.

"Bahahahaha! Oh I am sooooo going to use this one against him later."

_Meanwhile, back in the real world_

"It's no use, he won't budge!" insisted Chōza as he, Inoichi and Shikaku tried to pull Hunter away from Naruto.

The two were seemingly frozen in place with their eyes closed and Hunter's hand phased inside Naruto's chest. It was a disturbing sight to say the least. So far any attempt to separate them had failed and Sarutobi was starting to really worry.

"Keep trying." ordered the Hokage "Who knows what Hunter is doing to Naruto!"

"Alright, on three" said Inoichi "One...two..."

_Back in Naruto's mind_

Naruto was walking through his mind-scape looking for...well, anything when he saw a giggling Hunter emerge from a door in the wall.

"You! What's so funny!?" he demanded.

"Oh, nothing." said Hunter, stifling a laugh.

Naruto clenched his fists "Look, I don't know how you got in my mind again and I don't care. Just get out!"

Hunter raised his hands in mock surrender "Fine, fine. I've had my fun."

Naruto really didn't like the sound of that.

"Terminating connection." the dark sewer faded away to be replaced by...

_Back in reality_

"...three!"

Hunter's connection to Naruto ended at the same time the ninja trio tried to pull him away. The result was Inocihi falling to the floor, followed by Shikiau who landed on him and then Chōza who fell back onto both of them.

Hunter landed in front of the pile of ninjas but he was back on his feet just in time to cast a spell.

"STOPRA!"

Everyone 'stopped'.

"Sooooo. What to do with all of you. Oh...Oh, hohoho. Perrrrrfect."

Hunter ran back into the ramen bar and took all of the stools outside, along with Inoichi, Shikaku and Chōza's food.

As he worked Hunter started singing is own version of an old classic "Oooh I'm a mean one...Mister Hunter."

He put one stool down and arranged the other three around it.

"I really am a heel."

He sat the ninja trio down on the stools so they were all facing the centre stool. Then he brought out a large red table cloth and placed it over the middle stool, while tucking the ends into the men's shirts and pulling their head bands down over their eyes.

"I'm as cuddly as a cactus. I'm as charming as an eel. Mister Huuuunter."

Hunter put the bowls of food down on the cloth covered middle stool.

"I'm a bad banana with a...greasy black peeeeel."

That just left Sarutobi, Anko and Naruto to deal with.

"Oh you're a monster. Mister Hunter."

Searching Anko's pockets he found her supply of ninja wire.

"My heart's an empty hole."

He tied one end around Anko's partially outstretched arm, wrapped it a few times around Naruto's legs then around the Hokage's waist and the end around Anko's legs.

"My bran is full of spiders. I've got garlic in my soul. Mister Huuuunter."

With just seconds until time resumed Hunter jumped up onto a roof of a nearby building to get the best view of the show.

"I wouldn't touch me with a...Thirty-nine and a half foot pooolllle."

Time resumed.

Inocihi, Shikaku and Chōza jumped up from their seats, causing their bowls of food to fly upwards and land on their heads, covering them with food. As Anko's fist started moving again the wire around Naruto's legs tightened, causing him to fall forwards which made the wire around Sarutobi pull him over, leading to the wire around Anko's legs pulling her backwards.

"The work of a master if I do say so myself." said Hunter.

"Arrgh! Just what do you want!?" demanded Naruto as he jumped back up.

"Alright, I'll tell you. My plan is to start a war between all the ninja villages." everyone listened intently. "Then, I will use this war as leverage to steal the Hidden Leaf's pretty dam tasty ramen!"

The only one who still thought he was serious was, of course, Naruto. "That's got to be the most evil plan EVER! You'll never get away with it, I'll protect the ramen from you. Believe it!"

Hunter let out a mock evil laugh. "Mwahahah! Mark my words Naruto. The damned ramen will be mine!"

Then his disappeared into a black portal, still laughing maniacally.

"Errrmph! That fiend. We can't let him take the ramen!" declared Naruto.

"I think you'll find he was joking, Naruto." said Sarutobi.

The young ninja went red with embarrassment. "Oh...hehehe. I knew that."

_On a roof top not far away._

Hunter reappeared and took stock of his surroundings. One of the things he noticed was a large banner that read 'Chunin Exam finals tomorrow!'.

"Excellent. No point in going to that whatsit clan library now. Thorn will be long gone. I'll just catch up on some beauty sleep, watch the exam finals and round off the day by hunting nobodies. Awesome!"

Hunter laid down where he was, made himself as comfortable as he could, looked up at the sky and waited to fall asleep.

_A few hours later_

"I'll fall asleep any second now."

_A few more hours later_

"Any second."

_WAAAAY more hours later_

"One sheep. Two sheep. Three sheep..."

_Ninety-seven sheep later_

"Ninety-eight sheep. Ninety-nine sheep...oh snap."

The sun had gone down long ago and while Hunter didn't know what time it was he was pretty sure it was gone midnight.

He let out a grunt of frustration "I know you two are there. Stop hiding and get out here!"

Two figures suddenly appeared on the other side of the roof. Hunter got up and stretched his limbs.

"Well now. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting more leaf ninja. Not you two."

He turned and faced the two ninjas. Kankuro and Temari.

"Still, someone had to find me. Eventually."

_Konoha Strict Correctional Facility._

Mizuki was languishing in the same cell that he'd been in ever since Naruto had beaten him. The plan had been perfect, all he had to do was trick Naruto into stealing the Scroll of Seals, kill him and take the scroll to Orochimaru. And in return the snake Sanin would have made him even more powerful than ever. Needless to say, the plan hadn't worked, and after Naruto and his clones had beaten him to a bloody pulp he'd been thrown in the villages most secure prison.

But Mizuki hadn't given up. He'd get revenge on Naruto and Iruka and the whole blasted village. All he had to do was wait and-

CLANG

Mizuki looked up in surprise and the unexpected noise. Sticking out between the cell door and the wall was a pointed bit of thin blue fabric. Mizuki barely had time to register this when another blue point smashed through on the other side. Two more points followed underneath the last two. The spear like blue lines curled inwards then the solid metal door was ripped from its hinges and cast aside.

Someone stepped into the cell. It was a young man with spiky black hair, wearing a blue scarf and black cloths with a white symbol on his shirt. Twilight Thorn had wasted the past few days trying to locate a vital piece of information. He'd started with the Hyūga clan and had been caught by Hiashi Hyūga. He'd been far more careful since then. After covertly raiding several clan libraries and finding nothing of real value he'd opted for a more direct method of information gathering.

"Wow, a visitor." said Mizuki, trying his best to sound cool. "I get so few these days. But I take it this isn't a social call Mr..."

"My name is Thorn."

"Short, sharp and to the point." joked Mizuki. Thorn didn't laugh. "I take it you know who I am?"

"Mizuki. Former Hidden Leaf shinobi. Declared a rouge ninja and criminal after a failed attempt to steal the Scroll of Seals. You have a lust for power that stems from an inferiority complex, though in truth it's more of a fact."

That got Mizuki angry "Why you ignorant cocky little-"

"What's going on here!?"

Mizuki was cut off by the sound of a prison guard happening across Thorn. Mizuki saw an opportunity. While The guard fought with Thorn he would slip past them both and escape. That was when Thorn's scarf shot out and wrapped around the guard's neck. Thorn didn't turn round, he just kept staring at Mizuki. The scarf's tendril twisted, snapping the ninja's neck. The man's body dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

Thorn advanced on Mizuki, who retreated into a corner. "I'm here because you may have something I want. An answer to a question. Answer truthfully and I will release you from this prison."

"W-w-what question?" stammered Mizuki.

"Who is Naruto Uzumaki's mother?"

Mizuki was so taken aback by the question he almost forgot that Thorn had just killed someone. "What?...Um, well nothing was ever officially said but the only other Uzumaki in this village was Kushina Uzumaki."

"Kushina." Thorn repeated.

"Yeah. She used to be a ninja in the Hidden Leaf but then she got herself killed in the Nine Tails attack."

Thorn seemed to ignore Mizuki "So, Kushina was his mother and his father was-"

"Before you ask, no I don't know who the brats father is. Knowing Kushina, it could be any man in the village."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop a little "Kushina was superior to you in every way. And I already know who Naruto's father was. I have all I need from you."

"Right, well, it's been nice knowing ya."

Mizuki tried to leave but Thorn blocked his path. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Mizuki felt something clamp around his ankle. Looking down he saw with horror that that something was an inky black hand, belonging to a creature with bright yellow eyes that was slowly rising up from the shadows. More creatures started to emerge from the dark to restrain the panicking Mizuki.

"Hey! What are these things!?... I answered your question. You said you'd let me go!"

"No, I believe that my exact words were 'I will release you from this prison'. I never specified 'how' I would release you."

Thorn turned and left, a new objective already clear in his mind. Find more information on Kushina Uzumaki. If she had been a ninja then the village's main records would be the best place to start.

"Wait! You can't do this to me!"

Thorn didn't stop walking "Mizuki, if you dare to have dreams of power, you will be consumed by them."

Mizuki continued to futilely struggle against the Heartless. There were four of them now, one holding each limb, then a fifth one came out of the wall behind him and grabbed hold of his head. A sixth Neo Shadow rose up in front of him and slowly drew closer.

"No! Get away from me!" the monster didn't hear him. It got closer and closer until it's face was centimetres from Mizuki's. It held his gaze for a moment, then it looked down at the man's chest. It backed away and drew it's arm back.

"No! No,no,no,no NOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

* * *

Well, that's the end of him. Can't say I'm too broken up about killing Mizuki off.

Next chapter; The Sand Siblings give Hunter an 'enticing' offer.

'Till next time.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Hunter looked at the two sand siblings. While they weren't particularly powerful they were still dangerous and highly skilled. Temari was armed with the giant fan, which was currently strapped to her back, and Kankurō had that creepy looking puppet cocooned in bandages next to him.

"Now, I don't mean to be rude...Ah who am I kidding. I do mean to be rude. Why are you here and what do you want!?"

"Well, hello to you to Hunter." said Kankurō. "You've caused quite the stir around here. All we ever seem to hear is 'Hunter' this and 'Hunter' that."

"And what we've heard is interesting." said Temari "If even half of it is true." she put a particular emphasis on the 'if' part.

Hunter looked offended "You doubt the power of the Great Gazzo!?"

The sand siblings both sweat-dropped.

"We're here to extend an offer from the Kazekage." Temari continued "Someone with your...talents would be very much appreciated in the Hidden Sand Village. Your time stop jutsu in particular is invaluable. Who knows. I might just take you up on that dinner offer."

"I take it this is an offer I can't refuse. Right?"

"Pretty much." answered Kankurō "Any more questions?"

"Just one. Where's the other guy? You know, porcelain like skin, red hair, heavy use of masquera?"

That wiped the smiles off the sand sibling's faces. "That's not your concern." said Temari.

"You don't know where he is, do you?" now they both looked somewhere between nervous and angry. "Unbelievable. A murderous psychopath with a monster inside and you two nimrods let him out of your sight!?"

That stunned the pair of them. "You know about the..." Kankurō stopped himself before he could finish.

A smug smile spread across Hunter's face "Yes. I know about Gaara's very nasty plus one. But back to your very generous offer, answer's no. And if you're wondering why, it's because of her." He pointed at Temari.

"Me?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that your brother is a total jerk too. In fact I can tell he is. But you, you I really don't like."

Temari had gotten over her surprise and now seemed amused "And why would that be?"

"Remember Tenten, the girl you nearly killed in the preliminaries. First time I met her she tried to beat the crap out of me for a scroll I didn't have. Yet for some reason I like her. And what you did to her. That really makes me angry."

Temari gave a short chuckle. "Oh well. We can still learn your jutsu's secrets from your body."

The bandages on Kakuro's puppet fell away as he sent it to attack. Hunter jumped over the chattering wooden monstrosity and dived at the puppeteer but before he could reach him Temari opened up her fan so it showed one moon and yelled "Wind Scythe Jutsu!"

Hunter was blown back by the air attack and landed near the edge of the roof. Hunter sensed the puppet was right behind him. There was a slight 'shhhick' sound as four retractable blades came out of each of its arms. 'This is gunna hurt'

The puppet's blades all struck simultaneously, one where his heart should have been, one in his left shoulder and two in his lower back. Funnily enough it didn't hurt in the slightest. Suddenly Hunter got an idea. He went limp and pretended to be dead, falling backwards as the puppet pulled it's blades out.

"Well that was disappointing." said Kankurō as he pulled the puppet back to him and started walking over to where Hunter lay.

Temari stayed where she was. She was a good deal smarter than her brother and she thought that Hunter had gone down a little too easily. 'I'm being paranoid' she thought to herself. 'He couldn't have survived an attack like...wait.' then she noticed something amiss. 'No blood!'

"Kankurō get back! He's not dead yet!"

Hunter sprang back to life, his chains materialising mid swing. Kankurō barely had time to dodge and only just avoided one of the large hooks that sailed past his face.

"Dam it girl, you spoiled my surprise!" yelled Hunter.

Not wanting to give them a reprieve Hunter jumped into the air and threw his chains at Temari. She opened up her fan so all three moons were showing and sent a powerful gust of wind to intercept them. It didn't work. She had just enough time to jump out of the way before the hooks smashed into the roof where she'd just been. Hunter landed back on the roof and went straight for Temari. She folded up her fan and used it to block a leaping kick. Hunter pushed off from the fan and brought his chains round again but Temari managed to deflect them both.

'Nimble little minx' thought Hunter. 'I may have to turn this up a notch'

Sensing danger Hunter swung his chains round to block several kunai and senbon needles that had been fired from Kankurō's puppet, which was rapidly closing in on him. Several scythe blades emerged from the puppet's torso. Acting purely on instinct Hunter twisted his body round.

There was a loud crash accompanied by the sound of splintering wood as something crushed Kankurō's puppet like a bug.

"My Crow!" yelled the puppeteer

"Kankurō." he looked over at his sister. She looked terrified. Following her gaze Kankurō soon found out why.

The thing that had crushed the Crow was dark purple in colour with four spikes, two on either side, about a foot away from the tip. Further away from the tip it got darker and darker until the colour changed to inky black. The appendage was connected to the small of Hunter's back.

"A...tail!" Kankurō could hardly believe it.

Hunter moved his tail and held it up to his face. "That's interesting." He turned to face the sand siblings. Their eyes widened when they saw Hunter's mouth had changed so it now looked like a jagged black line that stretched almost from ear to ear. The fact that he was also staring at them both like they were giant hams wasn't helping either.

"That's veeeeerrrry interesting indeed."

Kankurō glanced at his puppets remains. It's main body had been destroyed but is head and remaining limbs were still functional. He pulled on his chakra strings, separating the puppets head, arms and legs from its now useless body and sent them to attack Hunter from various different angles.

"Reflect!"

The various limbs all struck a dome of translucent hexagons that appeared around Hunter. Then the shield exploded, obscuring Hunter in dust and smoke.

"Someone will have heard that." said Temari "Let's go!"

The two sand siblings turned and ran for it, jumping from roof top to roof top, heading towards the villages outer wall.

Hunter suddenly appeared on the roof in front of them, forcing them to stop.

"Going somewhere?" he asked menacingly.

Temari grabbed hold of her fan again just as Hunter started running towards them on all fours.

"Wind Scythe Jutsu!"

The fan created a powerful blast of air that flew in Hunter's direction but just before it hit him he created a black portal and disappeared into it. The exit portal appeared right in front of the sand siblings. Hunter dashed out and grabbed Kankurō by his shirt, lifting him off his feet. He also swung his tail at Temari, who had to use her fan to stop the spikes from impaling her.

"What's the matter?" asked Hunter "Cat got your..." he stopped mid sentence and closed his eyes for a moment "Terrible Darkness."

Hunter turned round, Kankurō and Temari following his gaze. Standing close by, arms folded and scowling, was the final sand sibling.

"Gaara." Hunter let go of Kankruō and moved his tail away from Temari. They both jumped over to stand by their brother.

"Well this is turning into a full on night, isn't it." said Hunter

Gaara looked at Hunter's tail. "So, there's something inside you to."

"Oh, you have nooooo idea." said Hunter.

"Gaara. The Kazekage ordered us to either capture or kill Hunter." said Kankurō. "And I'd say capturing him is out of the question now."

"Our father gave you two that order. Not me." sand started to seep out of the gourd on Gaara's back. "Still...why pass up the chance to kill someone."

The sand swept across the roof to where Hunter stood and began to encase him. He looked down at the sand that was rapidly covering him. "Oh snap." In moments he was encased in a thick layer of sand. Gaara raised his hand and enacted the final part of his jutsu "Sand Burial!"

The sand imploded.

"Well thanks a lot Gaara."

The three sand ninja all turned round and were shocked to find Hunter right behind them, using his finger to work sand out of his ear.

"I've got sand in places I didn't even know I had."

"How did you survive that!?" demanded Temari.

"Did you three all miss the fact that I can teleport!" Hunter looked past the trio and saw leaf ninja off in the distance. "You three come after me again and the gloves are off, got that? Oh and Kankurō. Sorry about your doll." With that he turned away and jumped off the roof.

"Well that was a colossal disaster." said Temari. "Not only is Hunter still alive but you lost your Crow!"

Kankurō rolled his eyes "Relax. I brought plenty of spare parts with me. If I work through the night I can get it fixed by morning. I just need to go back and pick up the peices."

Gaara stared after Hunter for a few moment's then he turned and left without a word.

"Do you think he'll be a problem tomorrow?" asked Kankurō.

Temari shrugged "I doubt it. When the invasion starts he'll probably just make a run for it. Hunter's a wanted criminal here, he's got no reason to stay."

"I wasn't talking about Hunter."

Temari thought for a moment. "Gaara will do his part. We just have to worry about doing ours."

_A short distance away_

Hunter darted through the deserted village streets, leaping off walls, jumping over small buildings. He felt like he'd been struck by a bolt of lightning. He finally skidded to a halt when he was sure he was far enough away from all the ninjas.

"Wow. That was totally wicked. Oh, there are times I...I...oh no." Hunter caught sight of his own reflection in a shop front window. He hadn't had a good view of his partial transformation before but now he could see the whole thing, the long spiked tail, the glowing yellow eyes, the broken, jagged mouth. He walked up to the window and stared intently at his own reflection. He reached up and touched his mouth.

'Even if I do find my home, can I go back like this?'

Hunter's tail retracted and his mouth returned to normal. He now looked perfectly human again, but that didn't make him feel any better.

Hunter jumped up onto the shop's roof where he laid down and went back to staring up at the stars and counting sheep.

_At the same time. In the Hokage's office._

Hunter wasn't the only one who was finding sleep elusive. For the Third Hokage the problems were just never ending, Orochimaru's return, the death of Danzo, his old friend and rival, Hunter's constant interference, the attack on the Hūyga clan and now there had been a break out from the Strict Correctional facility. The odd thing was only one prisoner was missing, Mizuki and from the looks of it someone had broken in specifically to find him. Considering how many dangerous criminals were housed in the facility why would anyone go after Mizuki? He wasn't a powerful ninja by any means, nor did he know anything truly important.

Still, for whatever reason someone powerful had risked entering a secure facility and killed a man all to get to the disgraced chunin.

The Hokage reclined in his chair and took a long puff from is pipe as he ran through his list of suspects. Orochimaru didn't care about his subordinates and wouldn't have bothered with a rescue, so it wasn't him. He couldn't completely rule out the other Hidden Villages but he'd been told by the investigators that no jutsu had been used, which made their involvement unlikely. Then there was Hunter. He had the power to do it, no question, but murder wasn't his style. Even then Hunter had no motive, as far as he knew, to go after Mizuki.

Sarutobi thought back to what Hiashi had told him. The Hūyga clan head had described him as cold, ruthless and said that he had called himself 'Thorn', yet when Sarutobi had met Hunter later that same day he'd seemed like his normal self. Either Hunter had developed a split personality disorder or Hunter and Thorn were separate entities. In either case Thorn seemed to have a great deal of power, yet unlike Hunter he was willing to cause serious harm.

Sarutobi let out a long sigh and grudgingly got back to his mountain of paperwork.

_Konoha Archive Library, ninja records section._

"No...No...No...Yes."

After an extensive search of Konoha's ninja records Thorn had finally found what he was looking for. He was in no danger of being discovered. While the records library did have various security in the form of seals and guards, it was nowhere near as protected as the clan libraries. Confidant that he would not be disturbed Thorn settled down and began reading the records of Kushina Uzumaki. He'd barely started when a Samurai Nobody appeared behind him. It bowed its head slightly and passed on its message.

Thorn practically jumped to his feet.

"What!? Why wasn't I told of this sooner I-"

A black portal appeared and a figure wearing a black cloak stepped out.

"Hey, Twilight."

Thorn bowed a little "My Lord."

The figure rubbed the back of its head "Right. You're not gunna stop calling me that are you?"

"I can used different titles if 'Lord' displeases you my Liege."

"Never mind. Erm, the other want a status report from you so...how's everything going?"

"Very well my Liege." he lifted the scroll he'd been reading. "I have the last piece of information I require. I will acquire my target soon."

"Right, good. Just...go easy on Naruto, ok Thorn. He seems like a nice kid."

"As you wish my Lord."

The figure nodded and disappeared into a black portal.

The Samurai leaned in close to Thorn's ear.

"Yes I agree. Lord Roxas is far too nice for his own good."

_Early next morning._

"Five hundred thousand six hundred seventy one sheep. Five hundred thousand six hundred seventy two sheep..."

After hours upon hours of counting sheep Hunter was going stir crazy. If something didn't happen soon he felt like he would explode. Sighing he sat up and looked around. The sun had just risen above the horizon and a few people were about on the street below, opening up their shops and putting up large banners advertising the chunin exam finals. A small bird fluttered over and landed on Hunter's nose. He slowly raised his arm and flicked it. The bird shot away with a short screech, leaving only a few feathers hovering in its place.

Remembering that he still had Kakashi's Icha Icah Paradise Hunter sat up and retrieved the book from its hiding place. He'd torn out the first few pages to taunt Kakashi but hopefully the plot wouldn't be too hard to pick up.

"Ok. _He_ _leaned in close and placed a delicate kiss on her lips_... Pretty tame so far."

He turned over to the next page. His eyes bulged as he continued reading and his skin became visibly paler until finally he slammed the book shut.

"Never again...never...again."

Hunter let his gaze wander and found himself drawn to the Hokage Monument that overlooked the village. He recognised the third face from the left as Sarutobi.

'So, the other two must be the previous Hokage's' Hunter looked at the fourth and final face 'Well then who is that guy? If he's the fourth Hokage then where is he? Extended vacation!? Hmm...' Something about that man's face looked familiar.

"Wait. He looks just like-"

"Hunter!"

He jumped to his feet and turned round in surprise.

On the rooftops behind him were several masked ANBU ninja. The one who'd called his name was a woman named Yūgao Uzuki. She had long purple hair and wore a cat mask with three red marks, one on the forehead and two on each porcelain cheek. The entire ANBU squad leapt down to surround Hunter, drawing their swords and taking up defensive stances.

"Hunter, by order of the Third Hokage, you are under-"

Before she could finish Hunter shot forwards and wrapped his arms round her and lifted her off the ground.

"Oh thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!" he yelled, ecstatically. "You have no idea how GLAD I am to see you all!" the he kissed her on the head three times.

ANBU ninja are trained to deal with life or death situations. Often the enemies they face are super powered psychopaths who enjoy killing, maiming and other horrible things.

Hugs and kisses were not something any of them were trained to deal with.

Hunter eventually put her down and took a few steps back. "Sorry, awkward. Hehe...So can you all please form a neat orderly queue so I can-"

Hunter ducked to avoid a sword strike that narrowly missed his head. The ANBU squad ran in all at once, planning to overwhelm him.

"Aerora!" Everyone was blown back by a powerful gust of wind. Most of the squad landed on their feet a short distance away from Hunter.

"Stand Clear!" ordered Yūgao. She pulled out a kunai with an explosive tag and threw it at Hunter. The ANBU team's overall plan was to use weak explosives to force Hunter into a trap outside the village. The whole thing had been planned out in great detail including the route they would take and where the backup teams were. She wasn't surprised when Hunter caught the explosive kunai, what was surprising was when he didn't throw it away and instead held it up to his face.

The explosion was quite small but at that close range it could still be fatal. When the tiny cloud of dust cleared however, Hunter had no visible injuries.

"Is that all you got?" he asked, mockingly.

Under her mask Yūgao gritted her teeth. 'How are we supposed to get him to go where we want when he can just shrug off our attacks?'

Hunter sidestepped one of the ANBU then cast a Blizzard spell on the floor, turning it to ice. The sudden change caused two other ANBU that had been charging at Hunter to slip and fall over, much to Hunter's amusement.

'He's actually enjoying himself!' Yūgao thought 'Hmm. He's enjoying himself'.

"Everyone, fall back!" she ordered.

The squad obeyed and followed their leader in leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

Yūgao looked over her shoulder and sure enough Hunter was following close behind them.

"Get back here you chickens!"

'Just as I thought. We don't need to force him away, we just have to lead him.'

Hunter continued to follow the ANBU squad as they lead him across the village, over the outer wall and into the woods beyond. They hadn't gone far when they reached a large clearing. Once they were halfway in the ANBU team halted.

"NOW!" yelled Yūgao.

Four new ninjas leapt out of the bushes and surrounded Hunter. Each of them was carrying a massive scroll, which they all placed on the ground and opened up. Then they started making hand signs. Three rings of glowing golden symbols appeared on the ground around Hunter, then a barrier made of light shot up around him.

"The seal is in place!" yelled one of the ninjas.

Hunter tapped on the shield a few times. Upon discovering that it was quite solid he looked at Yūgao "Clever girl."

"There's no way out Hunter." she said matter of factly.

"Yeah, we'll see about that!"

Yūgao smirked under her mask "Boar!" An ANBU wearing a boar mask nodded and body flickered away.

After about thirty seconds of waiting Hunter got bored and started examining his nails. 'Still better than the rooftop' he thought to himself.

About a minute later the Boar returned, along with two other ninja. The first was Anko, the other was an older man. He had a large, imposing figure, two diagonal scars on his face, one small one just below his right eye and one long one that stretched from above his left eye down almost to his chin.

"Well this was worth waking up for" said Anko "finally you're going to get what's coming to you."

Hunter did his best to look nonchalant "Um-hm. So who's your date." he asked, looking at the man.

"Ibiki Morino." answered the man. "I'm here to ask you a few simple questions."

"Questions, questions it's always questions with you guys. Alright. Fire away."

Ibiki smiled menacingly "Since your attack on the Hyūga clan you've searched through just about every clan library. We know it was you, you left the scrolls lying on the floor. Are you just gathering information on Konoha's clans or are you after something in particular?"

Hunter stared at him like he'd grown a extra head "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Oh drop the act Hunter!" yelled Anko. "You broke into the Hyūga clan library yesterday. You put three men in the Hospital!"

'They're talking about Thorn' Hunter realised 'So he's been raiding libraries. Why? Is he starting a book collection?'

"Hellllo...Hunter!?" Anko's voice snapped him out of his musing "Sorry, are we boring you?" she asked, sarcastically.

"Yes actually. Anyone want to play a game of chess?" He looked over at Yūgao "Maybe a game of twister?"

'This kid doesn't feel threatened in the slightest' thought Ibiki. 'I'll have to wear down his confidence before he'll reveal anything'

"You get quite a thrill from keeping your secrets from us." stated the interrogator. "But your mission in the Leaf is obvious."

Hunter leaned back against the barrier. This should be good.

"You're here on an information gathering mission. You don't belong to any particular village so you've been hired as a mercenary by another village who wants' deniability. Though I don't understand why anyone would send someone like you on such a delicate mission"

"I don't expect you to understand, Mr Bond I expect you to..." Hunter's super hearing picked up the sound of a pencil scratching against paper. Looking to his right he saw a brown haired ninja scribbling something down on a notepad. The man looked up when he realised Hunter had stopped talking "And what are you doing?"

"I'm just here to record Ibiki's interrogation. My job is to take down anything you say."

"Trousers."

The man started to write that down, then he realised Hunter's meaning and crossed it out.

Hunter looked back at Ibiki "You were saying."

"Well, you're dedicated, I'll give you that." admitted Ibiki "You've taken a lot of risks in your mission, attacking powerful ninjas, even the Hokage. Your employer must be paying you a lot."

Hunter shrugged "You could say that. 'Employer' is pushing it a little though."

Ibiki seemed to ignore him, inwardly however he took note of how there seemed to be no love lost between Hunter and whoever hired him. "I wonder just how dedicated to your mission you are? Enough to die perhaps? Enough to kill?"

That made Hunter pay attention.

Ibiki smiled "Ah, so now you're taking this seriously. Now that I have your attention, are you responsible for the death of Danzo Shimura?"

Hunter was shocked. He'd know that his nobody was evil but hearing that it had killed someone...That thing had been part of him once.

"Oh no." he muttered under his breath.

Ibiki recognised the look on his face. It was the 'what am I even doing anymore?' look he'd seen on hundreds of shinobi. 'He may not have killed Danzo, but he knows what happened.'

Hunter looked up at Ibiki and Anko "Q 'n' A's over."

WHAM!

Hunter slammed his palms into the barrier, dug his nails in and started to glow with a black aura. The golden symbols on the ground began to fluctuate and the chakra barrier started to flicker.

"The seal is destabilising!" announced one of the sealing team "He's breaking through!"

The ANBU team readied their weapons. That was when the seal finally failed and the barrier dropped.

Anko saw something moving behind Hunter "What the!?...A tail!"

Hunter looked over his shoulder and saw that he'd developed a tail again. "D'oh!" it quickly retracted back into his lower back. 'I'm gunna have to keep an eye on that thing.'

'This explains everything' thought Anko, panicking slightly 'The jutsu, the eyes. Hunter is a Jinchūriki!'

"Adios amigos!" Hunter started to create a black portal.

"No you don't!" Ibiki threw three explosive tagged kunai at the ground around Hunter. The explosion was large enough to through Hunter back, and stop the portal from fully opening.

Ibiki, Anko and the ANBU ninja stood their ground, waiting for the inevitable counter attack.

One of Hunter's hooks shot out of the smoke, flying past Ibiki and narrowly avoiding Anko, it slammed into the ground a few feet behind them. Hunter was right behind it, leaping out of the fading dust cloud, aiming a punch at Anko that she managed to dodge at the last moment.

"Aerora!" Hunter's air spell forced the closest ninjas back, while others had to shied their faces giving him enough time to create a new black portal. This time he wasn't interrupted.

"Damn it." muttered Ibiki as the portal disappeared. "Oh well. I knew the seal wouldn't hold him forever but I didn't expect him to escape so soon." Ibiki looked over at Anko. "I take it you saw the tail to?"

"No I missed the giant black spiky tail waving around behind him." she replied sarcastically. "We should have guessed he was a Jinchūriki. It's the only way he could have all that power."

"ANBU! Return to the village and search for any sign of Hunter, but do not engage. I want to know what he's up to." the ANBU ninjas body flickered away. With their job done the sealing team left to.

"Anko. You and I need to report our findings to the Hokage. The next time Hunter makes an appearance we will be ready for him."

Anko nodded in agreement. She was about to leave when she heard a rustling sound in the bushes behind her. She spun round on the sport and threw a kunai into the shrubbery. There was a dull thud as it passed through the bush and hit the tree behind. She watched the bush for any sign of movement but there was nothing.

"Problem?" asked Ibiki.

"I thought I heard something." said Anko. "Probably just the wind."

The two ninjas left the clearing.

As soon as it was sure they were gone a small Creeper Nobody crawled out of the bushes. It turned its head and looked back at Anko's kunai, which had passed right through its body. Then it teleported away, eager to inform Twilight Thorn of this event.

_Back in the village_

As soon as Hunter had returned he'd changed his shape into his female form and was now walking in the direction of the battle arena, where the chunin exam finals would take place. All the while all he could think about was what Ibiki had told him. Thorn was a killer. He and his nobody were basically the same person, so how had they become so different? And if Thorn had that kind of evil in him, did he have it too?

Hunter was just about to walk out of a side street onto a larger main road until he saw Naruto run by. He briefly wondered why he was in such a hurry. He got his answer when a herd of rather angry looking bulls ran past after the blond ninja.

Hunter shook her head "This world get's weirder every day." She followed Naruto's trail right up to the arena, although instead of going in the front door she opted for a different way in. Hunter simply walked right up to the buildings wall and started walking up the vertical stone surface.

She was about half way up when she began muttering "Don't look down, don't look down...Crap. I looked." Soon she reached the top of the arena. Definitely the best seat in the house. The stadium was a large circular structure made out of solid concrete, like a roman coliseum without all the arches. There were three stands located just beyond the stadium's perimeter, and they were already full of people that had come to watch the matches. On the middle had a second level to it. Unlike the level below it had only two chairs, one of which was occupied by the Hokage. There was also a rectangular hole in the wall where the competitors waited.

Hunter could see everything from her position. Including someone familiar. Once again his face had changed but the heart was still the same.

Orochimaru was sitting next to the Hokage. He was wearing what looked like a blue version of the Hokage's robes and was flanked by four guards, all of whom had dark hearts.

'What is he up to?' wondered Hunter as he changed back to his male form.

Someone way down below yelled out "Let the Chunin exam finals begin!"

The crowd cheered.

Hunter sat down and let his legs dangle over the edge.

"I should have brought some popcorn."

The first match was between Naruto and Neji. Needless to say Hunter was rooting for Naruto and although it was touch and go for a while, when the blond actually managed to beat Neji he was overjoyed.

"WAHOO! GO GO NARUTO!" Hunter yelled.

The second match was supposed to be Sasuke against Gaara but Sasuke hadn't shown up yet so the match was postponed. Instead the second match was to be Kankurō vs Shino but Kankurō surprisingly withdrew, much to the crowds frustration.

The second match was instead Shikamaru vs Temari. Hunter thought that Temari would win easily but he was surprised when late in the match Shikamaru managed to catch her in his shadow possession jutsu. Apparently he'd been planning five steps ahead the whole time and his every action had all been aimed at manipulating Temari. But just before Shikamaru could finish Temari off he suddenly up and forfeited.

"WHAT!" yelled Hunter in surprise. "You're just going to let that sand witch walk away, just like that!...Owwwww!"

The second (technically third) match was now over and Sasuke still hadn't shown up yet. The crowd, Hunter included were starting to get impatient.

That was when Sasuke and Kakashi finally showed up, in suitably flashy style. Kakashi went to the stadium while Sasuke went to the arena to fight Gaara.

Sasuke hadn't been fooling around for the past month. His speed had increased drastically, he was almost as fast as Rock Lee, and just like Lee Sasuke could outrun Gaara's sand shield. After getting his ass kicked all over the arena Gaara went into a protective ball of sand. Hunter was a good distance away, and that sand was an excellent sound barrier but his super hearing could still make out something coming from inside.

'Is he...chanting?'

His supernatural hearing also picked up part of a conversation between Temari and Kankurō.

"...I don't know but he's not following the plan. He's no good to us like that."

'Plan huh. Just what's going on around here?'

Sasuke tried to break through but he nearly got impaled by spikes of sand that shot out from the ball. The genin pulled back, way back, all the way up the arena wall. Hunter focused on Sasuke. As he watched Sasuke created what looked like a ball of lightning in his left hand, then he ran down the wall, hit the ground and charged at Gaara's sand ball. This time he broke through.

Nothing happened for a moment. Then Gaara screamed "AAARRRRGGGHHHH... Blood! ITS MY BLOOD!"

"Cripes, that kid can shriek." said Hunter.

Sasuke eventually managed to pull his arm free from the sand ball. A monstrous arm made of sand followed him out and nearly crushed him, then it retreated back into the ball. All Hunter could see inside was a mass of shifting sand, accompanied by the sound of beastlike growling.

This carried on for several seconds, then the sand ball disintegrated, revealing Gaara, who was clutching a small wound in his left shoulder.

"That was just plain weird. Huh...what's happening now?!" Down in the stands below people were starting to fall asleep en mass. Then there was a loud bang from where the Hokage and Orochimaru had been sitting. Looking up he saw a large plume of grey smoke.

Hunter's hearing picked up strange noises in the distance. Looking back at the village he could see people, ninjas, fighting in the streets and just beyond the village were three Kaiju size snakes that were about to come crashing through the walls.

"That smoke was a starting pistol. Orchimaru's launching an invasion...and those sand gits are all in on it!"

Hunter looked back down at the stadium. There was fighting down there now too, amongst the unconscious crowd.

He broke into a smile as his chains materialised by his side.

"Well what am I standing around for!"

He jumped off the edge and dived towards the battle.

"LOOK OUT BELOW!

* * *

So to sum up. Thorn is gearing up, Orochimaru is attacking and now everyone thinks Hunter is a jinchuriki. Now there's a misconception that will lead to problems.

Next time, Hunter attempts to halt the sand-sound invasion and Thorn unveils his new secret weapon.

TTFN


End file.
